Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?
by justalildifferent101
Summary: Lyra and Silver meet as tag partners and pursue similar goals as rivals. As Lyra's fame rises and romance begins, the two get mixed up with a violent, uncontrolled mafia where sacrifice is their only means of ending them and gaining revenge. Not game plot, but has some of its elements.
1. Break the Ice

**Author's Note:** My first SoulSilvershipping fic is here at last, after restarting Chapter 1 about 5 times! I love reviews and I hope you all enjoy. I have chosen to have NO CONTINUITY between this story and my HoennChampionshipping fics (Steel Water and Fire and the Islands, check them out too!). I also don't follow the game plot.

With that said, here goes:

* * *

_Lyra. _

_Battle Factory, Johto Battle Frontier_

…

"We'll take your Pokémon in exchange for the rentals, now, Miss,"

"Right here," I handed her two pokeballs, one holding a Quilava and the other a female Nidoran.

The attendant gave me a bored nod and waved me into the pearl white hall that stretched on behind us, filled with blue lights. With that over with, I crammed my hat tighter on my head and dashed into the heart of the Battle Factory to select my tag partner.

…

There must have been at least 12 people in that room; Mostly Ace Trainers that competed in Frontier battles all the time. Each face there was unfamiliar and absorbed in their partners, and as more and more people partnered off, the room grew less and less cramped. Even after 10 minutes, I stood alone.

One person was left idle, sitting on the couch with his head hung forward. His red hair was strewn in a long, messy curtain over his face as if he was asleep. He had a lonely, unapproachable aura about him that seemed to fill the room up and drag me in. Even in the midst of the two girl's loudening debate over whatever, the boy's shoulders would rise in fall in a steady 3 second rhythm, lost in sleep.

All of a sudden, one of two girls in a heated fight in the corner let out a shrill scream and recoiled away from a taller girl with a hand clenched over her eye. I shot a wide-eyed look at the boy on the couch in fear he'd woken up.

He sure had.

With a gasp, he shook his hair out of his face wildly, and as the red strands fell out of his face I could see the hateful, cold gray locked in his eyes.

"When did I get here?" I heard him mutter.

I rushed up to the dangerously attractive redhead, stumbling with excitement.

"Hey! Mister, uh… red-haired boy! Remember me? You're my partner, congratulations!" I planted myself right in front of where he sat and hoisted him up onto his feet. I had learned, knowing Ethan's own tendency to nod off at random times, that a just-woken person was as gullible as someone who had been born yesterday. Not to mention that playing off of his confusion qualified as breaking the ice to me.

"If you were my partner," his voice was low and bored - he'd only just woken up, after all. "Then you would know my name,"

I wasn't in the least stifled by his low spirits. This is me we're talking about. I took his arm and hauled him toward the elevator. "If you had the capacity to remember whether we were partners or not, you would at least know how you got here,"

He closed his eyes in frustration as I began to tug him, in the same way you would drag a sack along the ground, toward the elevator. "Wait, what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, just come on," I really wished he would cooperate. He was heavier and a little taller than me, and dragging him across the room, despite it being a short distance, was turning out to be a chore. "Wait, what is your name?"

"Silver," After responding, the boy called Silver looked somberly at his other options, who were now rolling around on the floor slugging the sense out of each other and screeching obscenities. Then, suddenly, he broke my grip and strode to the elevator, practically punching his fist into the black button on the wall to activate it.

He raised a hand and beckoned to me with defeat as the elevator slowly rumbled to a stop and the doors opened. "Just hurry up, and don't drag me down in the battles,"

...

"You each will have 2 Pokémon to battle with in each consecutive match. You have the option to exchange one of your pokémon with one used by the opponent that has been defeated. No items may be used on the Pokémon besides held items. Understood?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but Silver cut in first. "I'm aware of how the Battle Factory works," he snapped.

The woman's smile went from pleasant and genuine to forced and hurt. I glared up at Silver for being so rude, but he paid no attention. She continued.

"I'll be informing you on two of the pokémon your opponents will be using between matches. These opponents will be using a Salamence and a Haunter. May I suggest you select your pokémon after appropriate deliberation?"

I smiled at her for her valuable input, tipping my hat and nodding in thanks.

On the table were 8 pokeballs. In front of each one was a small card with the species, held item, ability, personality, and moveset of the pokémon inside.

I watched Silver observe the pokeballs on the table. Slowly, without my consciousness about me, my gaze intensified on his eyes, trying to rouse a reaction, an emotion, anything. Finally, his head turned completely to me with a look of irritation on his face. Throwing him an embarrassed smile, I shook my head clear and drew my attention back to the pokémon.

I carefully read out the names on the index cards lining the table; "Toxicroak, Rampardos, Lickilicky, Blaziken, Rhyperior, Froslass, Gallade, and Swampert,"

"So you're talking to yourself now? Isn't that an early sign of psychopathic behavior?" His dark, bored voice asked.

"So you think you're a psychologist now?" I giggled. "Are you _sure_ you fell asleep on the couch, Silver? Or did you hit your head on something and pass out?"

And that was the end of that.

The pokeballs for Rampardos and Froslass were missing from behind their index cards. Instead of releasing the annoyed growl that was clogging my throat at the loss of a Froslass, I dismissed that and gave a closer look to the Toxicroak and Gallade.

With my pokémon chosen, I sat down to wait being called for battle.

...

_Silver. _

_Match No. SEVEN_

All announcements in the Battle Frontier were dramatic, with the audience and the screens planted around the indoor battlefield drilling their attention into you. I was after a Razor Claw in exchange for 48 BP, and the Battle Factory was the fastest way to get those points with 5 points every 7 consecutives. And thus, here I was. The second I stepped through the double doors leading directly into the battlegrounds, pure white light exploded in my eyes and my head dropped automatically to block out the pain of it. Spectator's voices reached a deafening fever pitch.

The expanse of the Factory's ovular battlegrounds was coated in a dusty, dark brown mixture of sand and soil. An attendant at the door pointed me and that amazingly annoying girl beside me to the left side of the field. Lyra.

I dared myself to glance to my right to see her reaction to the scene, and regretted it the second the act was done. She just had to dramatize things further, hurling her hand into the air and waving to the audience with a huge smile on her face. Her eyes were a monarch, reddish shade of light brown and the headlights beamed in her irises. I was only briefly distracted before mentally slapping myself in the face and glaring down at her.

"Could you not act like an idiot, please?"

Lyra, unflappable as usual, did nothing but smile closemouthed at me. "We've won 6 matches in a row without breaking a sweat. Why won't you lighten up?"

I rolled my eyes at her idiocy. "You have to learn to take things seriously if you want to be the best,"

That seemed to break through some barrier in her head, and she lowered her hand down to her side and stared into the dirt until we reached our spot on the left side of the field. Her sudden disheartenment surprised me; there was nothing I'd said all day that could put her down or that she didn't have a response to. I crammed my hands in my pockets and shrugged away what felt like a spot of guilt on my shoulder.

The crowd suddenly grew hushed and silent as two female Ace Trainers took their place across from us.

There was a ragged crackling audio sound, and the announcer's voice blared from the overhead's speakers.

"Alright folks, this is our final challenge of the evening! Both teams are in their final match! Ace Trainers Jamie and Reena on the right! Trainers Silver and Lyra on the left!"

I clenched my hand tightly around the first pokeball on my belt, my teeth grinding together with the tension of the wait. Spit it out!

The announcer switched the screens from the trainer's faces to the field. "BATTLE!"

"Rampardos!" I tossed the ball into the air. With a gust of light, a huge gray beast erupted from the pokeball and roared out its name, clawing at the earth with his feet to ready himself to charge.

Lyra did the same as I had, thrusting the pokeball out with all her might. "Go, Toxicroak!"

"Salamence!"

"Huanter!" Both girls kicked out their pokeballs as opposed to throwing them; from one ball came the monstrous Salamence and from the other a Haunter.

I knew that in a battle, speed was of the essence. "Rampardos, Head Smash, dead on!" I made a wide gesture with my arm for the Rock-type to see, ending the movement by pointing straight at the Salamence.

"Toxicroak, Thunder Punch the ground right behind Rampardos!" Lyra shouted.

I shot her a wild-eyed glare. Was she stupider than I'd thought? Whatever, I didn't have time to beat some sense into her. Rampardos obediently drove his feet into the ground with fearsome speed and launched himself at the Salamence, head bowed, collecting blue energy at the skull. Toxicroak moved into the spot where Rampardos had stood a split second ago and prepared his fist with glowing electric power. Then, the opponent's first command.

"Salamence, Dragon Claw!"

The girl that had given the command made a strange, enthusiastic gesture with her arms- beckoning upwards as if telling the dragon to stand up. The Salamence stood by, and Rampardos' bowed head was mere meters away from head-on collision with the foolish Pokémon. I had every ounce of my confidence, until realization hit me. She was using a delayed action technique. The second Rampardos was in range, the short-legged and ungainly Salamence would go in for the Dragon Claw. Rampardos was in range now.

"Now, Toxicroak!" Lyra cried.

With a huge and monumental force, Toxicroak's fist was heaved into the earth, sending electrified chunks of rock erupting left and right in a high speed death path for Salamence and Rampardos. The Salamence stood up on its hind legs and raised its clawed arm to strike. A bead of sweat ran down the side of my face as I caught on.

"Rampardos, Dig down!"

Rampardos defied its confusion and obeyed. The blue glow that had gathered at his head choked off and he immediately dug beneath the Salamence's attack, vanishing from range. As quickly as Rampardos had escaped, the path of electrified rocks met up with Salamence and an explosion of thunderstruck stone blasted into its unprotected stomach. Toxicroak's long range Thunder Punch had hit its mark.

Salamence roared out in agony and was knocked backward off of its feet by the power of the attack. Lyra gave me a quick smile and threw her fist out to command Toxicroak, but the girl commanding the Haunter, who we'd previously forgotten about, beat her to the punch.

"Shadow Ball at that Toxicroak, Haunter!"

A blob of shadowy energy began to formulate and slap together in the Haunter's mouth, which was blasted at Toxicroak with magnificent speed.

"Rampardos, now!" I shouted.

The pokémon returned from the dirt core of the battlefield immediately, his mouth twisted in what could only be described as a smirk. Skull bared, Rampardos struck the Haunter in a surprise attack from beneath. Rampardos' staggering speed kept the Haunter from going intangible and rendering the hit useless. The Ghost/Poison-type was thrown into the air, but Shadow Ball had struck Toxicroak now and had damaged him beyond help.

Impossibly, the Haunter rose back to levitation. At first, it appeared unhurt by the attack, but it was clear in its lurching ascent and the dull shade of purple it had taken on that the Haunter had suffered the hit completely and lost at least ¾ of its HP.

The girl commanding the recently struck Pokémon was red faced and livid as Rampardos dashed back in place beside the wounded Toxicroak.

"Haunter, use Payback!"

Haunter flew at Toxicroak with its body glowing an intense black color. I knew the punishment Payback could deal after an offense like that. I mentally slapped myself again.

"Use Rock Slide on Haunter, Rampardos!" As soon as the words had left my mouth , the previously immobilized Salamence dove down from the air with its teeth bared at Rampardos, the teeth cloaked in flames. I staggered back. "Shit!"

Lyra heard my panic and ordered her Toxicroak. "Toxicroak, Ice Punch, now!"

The entire situation had become a mess. Toxicroak leapt in front of Rampardos and slung out its fist in the nick of time, catching the Salamence in the face for a 4x super effective hit. Haunter, who had moved in for close range with Payback, skidded right into the mess of pokémon and attacks. The Fire Fang that Salamence had been preparing to strike Toxicroak with hit the icy fist with a vengeance, and with the rocks from Rampardos' Rock Slide crashing on top of Salamence as well, hissing plumes of steam rose into the air and clouded the entire dome in seconds.

Lyra raised an arm to protect her face and clutched her hat to her head to keep it on. Silence engulfed the room, and in another moment, the steam had cleared. Salamence, struck dead-on by Ice Punch, Rock Slide, and Shadow Ball, twisted in agony midflight and crashed into the ground. Its eyes closed in a dead faint.

"Yes!" Lyra expressed her enthusiasm in the weirdest way. She clenched her fist tightly and close to her face and hopped up and down like a Buneary. Once again, not the time to knock some sense into her.

Rampardos, who had used a long-range attack, had escaped the mess. Haunter, however, sunk down low to the ground, X's in its eyes. The intensity of the battle had taken its toll on Toxicroak as well. The pokémon had been delivered all 4 of those attacks, and was wobbling on its knees with the effort of standing. Lyra immediately gasped and took hold of Toxicroak's pokeball, which had been returned to her by an attendant.

"Come on back, Toxicroak," She pressed the center of the ball and the exhausted but still conscious Toxicroak was absorbed into it. I closed my eyes and chuckled. Fool. As long as a Pokémon could fight, it should keep fighting.

Lyra didn't perceive my mental scoff, and bent her head down to speak into the ball with a tenderness that shocked my eyes wide open. "Good job, buddy," She reached into her pocket and threw out another ball.

"Your turn, Gallade!" Lyra threw out a dual Psychic-Fighting type. It was released from the ball in midair and landed with practiced smoothness onto the field, slashing its sword-like arms into the air.

The two girls exchanged determined glances and kicked out two new pokeballs after reabsorbing the fainted ones.

"Steelix!"

"Meganium!"

I paid no mind to the Grass-type with the ignorant, weak appearance that plodded out onto the field. It was that Steelix that caught my attention. It dropped its jaw and roared out in a wall shaking blast, slithering out with its steel body to glare me right in the eye.

No matter the type disadvantage. I didn't care what I had to do, but I wasn't going down now.

Lyra leaped at the opening to attack. "Gallade, use Focus Punch!"

Great. Now I had to keep Gallade from getting hit before it struck. I growled and shouted to Rampardos. "Rampardos, use Head Smash at the Meganium!"

Roaring with excitement, Rampardos dug its claws into the earth once more and raged at Meganium, who stood perfectly calm and in place.

"Meganium, use Frenzy Plant!"

This time my growl tore from my mouth like a motor ripping itself to life.

"Focus Punch, now!"

In an instant, Gallade sped over the field and leapt into the air, coming down for an Aerial at the Meganium. The stretched scythe arm was glowing crimson when it struck the Meganium flat on its slow, pathetic head and slung it to the ground like a rag doll. Rampardos skidded to a clean stop to avoid hitting Gallade. I wasted no time.

"Rampardos, Rock Slide!" The rocks began to glow and surface from the field and were slung at the injured Meganium, burying it completely. With that out of the way, I refocused on that Steelix.

The girl commanding the Steel-Ground type leapt to attention. "Release your Flash Cannon, Steelix! At Rampardos!"

Before I could see the powerful Steel move cultivating in the Steelix' mouth, it fired a hunk of glowing metal at Rampardos. With Rampardos' low Sp. Def, plus the fact of its super effectiveness, I knew this would be a one-hit KO. Suddenly, Lyra leapt to action.

"Gallade, Psycho Cut!" Lyra pointed straight at the Flash Cannon. "Don't let Rampardos get hit!"

Just as she gave the command, Flash Cannon connected with the glowing violet blade of Gallade's arm, and with one smooth, downward slash, the attack was split perfectly in half to land harmlessly at Rampardos' sides.

Then, another idea surfaced. "Rampardos, take the pieces of the Flash Cannon and use Fling!"

Dirt was thrown into the air as Rampardos bowed down mid-dash and collected the pieces. He hurled the Steel projectiles at the Steelix at top speed. Steelix roared out in agony at the collision, tossing up more dirt with its tail as it thrashed.

"Gallade, finish it off with Brick Break!" Gallade crossed the field to deliver the finishing blow, striking the Steelix in its snakelike body and flinging it into the wall behind it.

The mounds of dirt cleared away from the Pokémon. X's filled its unconscious eyes. We'd won.

"We won! Yes!" Grinning, Lyra did her hopping thing and pumped a fist into the air. The crowd went up in cheers for our victory. Lyra must have seen some sort of boredom in my expression and frowned, eyebrows furrowed. "No reaction, huh?"

I shrugged and drew a hand through my hair in exasperation. "I didn't expect anything less than victory, with my skill, and your-"

She gave me a sudden childish pout, demanding her compliment, and so I offered; "Enthusiasm," And as the audience began to flood into the field to congratulate the winners, I crammed my hands in my pockets and exited the battlefield.


	2. Pocketknives and Security Blankets

**Author's Note: **New chapter! I hope to see that I'll get the next one out even faster, considering holiday break is approaching and I'll have not a thing to do. Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers, and enjoy the chapter everyone!

* * *

_Lyra._

As I sat on the beach settled right on the outskirts of Olivine City, lit by the steady saffron glow of the lighthouse blaring into the night, my heart was still soaring with the thrill of 7 consecutive victories. There was a thing about winning, where you can't bury your enthusiasm for long, no matter what the feat accomplished or over whom. A victory meant you had done what you do best better than somebody else had, and that idea was ravishing. I shivered hard; late fall was rising and I ought to have thought about bringing a coat.

But still, there was the question of where Silver and I would meet next. He had disappeared from the Frontier right after beating Jamie and Reena, and hadn't given me a second glance.

As if the entire scene wasn't worthy of his time, like a ghost, he had gone. My fingers dragged through the fine sand on the beach, clinging to rocks or any other lonely object that had been left behind.

"Isn't this like one of those silly fairy tales Mom used to tell me? What was it…"

Beside me, Sorrel's little mouth flapped open. "Cynda- Cynd! Cynd!"

"Cinderella!" I flopped onto my back and laughed into the pitch black sky. "You still say 'Cyndaquil' even though you're a Quilava now, huh, Sorrel?"

Spots of red lit her little cheeks as she pranced in the sand; for a Fire-type, she sure loved the ground.

His face came to my head without shame now that I was isolated from human company. In the depths of the ocean where nightfall touched the waves, I saw a silvery essence on the surface that reminded all too much of his beautiful, ghost gray eyes. I closed my eyes, locking my arms around my knees. My face grew burning hot under my hands as his face lingered beneath my eyelids. I continued to let my mind drift off with the remaining daylight. Where had he gone?

That fact I was clueless about, but I did establish one thing- and I blushed harder once I realized my own resolve- after those battles I knew I would never dream of tag battling with anybody else. Not after that performance we put on together.

"Say, Sorrel," I whispered. "Where do you think he went?"

Instead of chirping out in response, her expression grew puzzled. "Cynd.. Cynda-quil?"

Sorrel jutted her nose, pointing out behind me with the same look of confusion.

All the color drained from my face. "You don't mean to tell me…?"

My voice went dead silent, and a rustling in the trees lining the Frontier entrance shook my entire body inside out. After only 3 seconds, there was a snore, the kind made when waking oneself up.

"I guess I can leave now. Come on,"

That voice. From the bushes emerged Silver with a heavy jawed water-type tottering behind him, heading towards the gray stone streets of Olivine City.

My shriek erupted through the entire beach, nearly bowling Silver and his Croconaw over and sending a Noctowl perched in the trees squawking away.

"You!" I choked. "How long have you been here?"

Silver looked as if I'd hit him with a wrecking ball. "I should be asking that- what the hell are _you_ doing here?"

Of course, we had to begin our conversation in a wave of confusion. "I came out here after looking for you all over town!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet and stomping over the sand to where he stood, frozen.

"And why were you looking for me, exactly?" Silver's Croconaw growled in cohesion to the question.

The red heat that spread over my face threw the last of my dignity away. Oops. Why did I always say too much? "I… um, I, well…"

Without patience for my stuttering, he gave me a dismissive wave and took off towards Olivine's gates. Under the moon's vanilla embrace, the arched, limestone gate looked more like a glittering bar of metal than an aging passageway. As much as I wished to ogle, Silver's departure snagged my attention back. I rushed up behind him and caught up in a moment.

"Hey! Wait up!"

He didn't turn. An emotion like rocks tumbling around in my stomach struck me, and I growled with frustration. Then an idea dawned on me. I stopped in my tracks and whispered, with a smugness behind it all, "I thought you might want something beside BP for those tag matches,"

He halted mid-stride, and Croconaw, not noticing Silver's stop kept on walking before Silver called back to it.

His cold gray eyes were shimmering in the moonlight where he stood, beneath the arches. I rummaged through my bag for the item and yanked it from underneath a few empty pokeballs sitting at the bottom.

"Here. It's, um, a TM. You know, a Technical Machine. It's got Water Pulse in it, so I thought maybe you'd like to teach it to your Croconaw…"

All the while, Silver glared at me with the indifferent cold gray stare he wore whenever we exchanged glances. "Water Pulse, huh?" He finally said, taking the tiny blue disc from my hand. Without another word he was leaving again.

Finally, I dropped my arms at my sides and shouted out, "Will you at least tell me where you train?"

Silver leaned back against the arch. "Dragon's Den. If you've got the nerve to battle me, Mario, I'll be there later tonight," He gave me another final backhanded wave, and took off down the street.

There was no deliberation on my part. Sorrel, Annie, and Savvy (my Carvanha, a gift from a friend of mine that lived in Hoenn once) had had a nice, relaxed day after the Battle Frontier and were all itching to strike the battlefield again.

"You bet!" I shouted back. I don't know whether or not he heard me, but shouting it out loud brought certainty into me. Okay, so now I needed to get to the Dragon's Den. That was in Blackthorn City, right?

Suddenly, a little detail of what he'd said struck me a second time.

"Wait a minute. Did he just call me Mario?"

* * *

Lucky for me, Savvy knew Surf and had just learned how to utilize it to carry my weight on his back. A very nice Fearow gave me a ride to Blackthorn, as his own goal was to make it to the mountainous area behind the city. No problems.

"Thanks for the late-nite ride, Mister Fearow,"

A happy, shrill roar sounded out from the Fearow's mouth as he twisted higher up into the sky.

"Oh wow," I laughed. The night sky was perfect, cloudless, and lit with stars that could finally poke their heads into view when we left the city limits and their bright lights. "Take a look at what we've been missing,"

Briefly caught astray, I decided to distract myself and take another look at the map. Blackthorn city was about two miles further up. Silver was two miles away. As I let myself think about him again, I wondered how he got there so quickly. Soon, it came into sight directly below us, and Fearow, a migrating Flying-type at heart, dropped in for a landing immidiately. We swooped down, nearly scraping the side of the mountain behind the city where the Dragon's Den was carved into. The mountain was decorated with a collection of icicles and tiny streams of water peeking out from between the rocky surface.

The Fearow dropped me off at the foot of the cave's entrance.

"Thanks, mister," I hopped off of his back and watched him drift away into the night, floating higher up the mountain. Well, no turning back now. I held my breath and stepped into the rocky crevice.

…

There was nothing but a tiny rock room beyond the entrance. In the center was a shadowed opening in the floor where a ladder hung and any person simply straying around could fall right in. Funny. The map told me that there would be a guard inside this room to prevent anyone besides the elders from coming in. A chill struck my spine as I searched my mind for possibilities.

The ladder, rickety and moss coated, just begged to have a bottle of my favorite perfume dumped on it. I gulped down a hard lump in my throat, clutched my bag tighter on my hip, and took a step into my descent down the ladder.

The Dragon's Den was dripping with algae and the smell of putrid, nasty water hung in the air. I reached the bottom of the ladder in a swift few seconds, my feet slapping down onto the stone of the den with an echo that carried over the entirety of the place.

I took another look over the gaping sea of dragon-infested water before me. It seethed teal from the very bottom of its floor to the raging surface. Waves were yanked from the lake to slap and foam at the walls lining the den. Every time the skunky water lapped up against the rock platform I stood on, more of that nasty putrid smell swept over me. I shook my head to drown the stench in thought.

God, Silver, you better be worth it.

Inside my bag were 3 pokeballs. I made a quick grab for one of them and released the Pokémon inside.

"Come on out, Savvy!" She burst from her pokeball with a wall-shattering roar and plopped into the water. Even as a Carvanha, Savvy was large. Her scaly red back could carry my entire body easily, so long as I kept my legs tucked in and held onto her fin.

I sat, one foot in front of the other with my arms coiled around her fin, on her back, and she zipped through the water with her short tail flapping behind her. Slime dripped from the cave walls with the aged stench of the slimy water. Endless amounts of this plantlike moss was crawling over the only civilized structure in this place, a house that looked as if it was better off holding a house of elves than humans. The whirlpools that the Elders had set up for security had been severed through already; probably Silver's doing, I figured. That led to another intuitive thought. Whatever party he had with him, one of the pokémon knew Whirlpool. And if he was fast, his Croconaw would already know Water Pulse, too. So I would have to get him down fast. Blankly, I thought of Annie, with her knowledge of Bullet Seed.

Lining the side of the building was a wooden porch, where Savvy stopped obediently at. I stepped off of her back and returned her to her pokeball with a sincere thanks, and that was it. I was alone. Not a soul wandered on the porch near me. I could hear no sounds inside the house, even through its papery walls. Surely Silver would be here by now…?

I cupped my hands over my mouth. "Silver! Hello! You there?"

After an agonizing silence, my call was finally answered, but not with the voice of a human. The first sign of response was a chopping, bubbling sound coming from behind me. Directly behind me.

Hot white panic grabbed me hard as the noise grew louder and louder. I dared myself, quivering with the feathery lightness of a shred of wheat under a fan, to turn around.

Sure enough, the water was splitting in a growing swirl in the water. The murky surface of the water was lit with bubbles, and a crown of spikes slowly emerged. I braced myself back against the side of the building and fumbled for one of my pokeballs.

I heard the terrifying roar of a pokémon and screamed with panic as I tossed the pokeball into the air. "Sorrel!"

In a flash, the marine pokémon leapt onto the splintered brown deck with its claws outstretched.

"Croconaw! Hit it with Aqua Tail!"

I nearly doubled over backwards with fright then. That was a human voice! And I knew it, too! My eyes immediately flashed wide open to take in the scene as I scrambled farther back on the wall. The Croconaw leapt high off of its strong legs, twisted its body in midair, and brought down its electric blue tail onto Sorrel's head, sending her crashing right through the paper thin wall.

"Sorrel! Are you okay, honey?" I flung myself into the gaping tear in the wall to retrieve my pokémon. Pools of water dappled the interior wooden floor before where she lay, beaten badly by that one head-on attack. I scooped her up in my arms, newfound fury welling in my stomach.

"Hey! Why would you do that, attacking me out of nowhere-"

My mouth snapped closed as Silver slapped a dripping wet hand down onto the wooden platform. Once he'd hauled himself to his feet, he gave me a prideful smirk and shrugged off my shock.

"You said you wanted a battle, you got one. Doesn't look like your whatever-the-hell-it-is can fight anymore. I want 1000 for that pathetic waste of my time,"

I fumed at from his remark, and hissed back with eagerness. "You know what you can have, Silver? _ZERO _and a nice kick in the-"

_"What is going on out here!" _A foreign voice jolted our attention.

Out of the house burst an elderly man with bulging blue eyes and a white beard, clothed in striped blue pajamas and brandishing what looked like a walking stick shaped like a Dragonair. Silver spluttered a swear in his surprise, and I clung to the railing in preparation to jump off if he tried anything with that stick.

"Do you frolickers realize what time it is?" He spat, rousing a bright red blush form both of us. "Go home! Visiting hours are over!"

"Frolickers?" I flew to explain the situation, but my rapid tongue twisted itself incoherently. "No, no, no, you've misunderstood! I-I, you see, sir, we were only about to battle there was no-" I shot a panicky, wide-eyed look at Silver, and it must've been really funny, because he bit his lip to keep from laughing despite him being the one looking like a wet, shaggy red-haired dog. I growled and waved him away as I turned to the old man to continue.

"It's just- I were only just arriving when he-" I pointed at Silver, "-tried to battle me and my Quilava went through the wall, and we're really, really sorry-"

The old man looked exasperated, his wrinkled face sinking in irritation. "So are you looking for a place to stay?"

At this point, Silver had his Croconaw back in the water and was readying himself to make a run for it, but I quickly grabbed him by the collar and smiled as warmly as I could muster. Thing was, my teeth were gritted in the corners with the vigor of holding Silver in place, hindering the entire visage I was faking.

"Yes, yes we are. Do you have any recommendations as to where to go in Blackthorn?" Carvanha was too tired to scale the mountains lining Blackthorn city and I was too tired to climb them anyway. Silver, snagged and without means of escape gave the man a bitter look, but dropped his head in defeat.

"Alright then," he said, waving a hand to us as he made his way back into the house. "I'm sure we've got some empty rooms left…"

I exhaled the lungful of air that I'd been holding in, and we followed him inside.

The interior of the house was dark caramel, with panels of wood holding up the structure. The walls were as papery thin as they appeared from the outside, only slightly warmer than the den outside. In the corner of the room were a few reed diffusers, lit with wisps of smoke at their tips. A scent of bark and tea enveloped the room.

Silver and I exchanged uncomfortable glances, and as we were led down a passageway, I nudged him.

"So, we're going to have to find somewhere to battle. I didn't hitch a ride on a Fearow, scour a city, nearly get attacked by a Krabby just to-"

"Quiet!" The man shouted, flailing his cane around. "I'm doing you two a favor,"

I made a zipper gesture over my lips and folded my hands behind my back. We walked on. As of right then we'd passed about 12 doors. We were underground now, the drafty, moist smell crashed into me as we moved further. Silver's temper finally flared.

"Are we anywhere near the spare rooms yet?" he snapped.

Nonchalance met the old man's features. I sensed graveness in his expression that nearly bowled me off my feet. We stopped before a door at the end of the hall; the only one without a lit lamp beside it.

"Looks like we only have one," he pushed open the flat old door of the room and lit the lamp with the simple turn of a knob beside the doorframe. "You'll have to share, and keep it down,"

Wait a minute! I hopped up a few times in exasperation. "Keep it down? What do you think we'll be doing?" I groaned, but was promptly ignored.

Whistling softly to himself, the old man left us at the door. I dared Silver with a fluctuated, red faced look to enter first, and he hesitantly did so.

I realized, once I heard Silver's irritated and private tone, that I'd been clutching a hand over my eyes to prepare myself.

"Will you quit it? It's not all that bad,"

My clammy hand fell from my eyes, and it turns out, he was kind of right. One wall of the room was stone, and I could hear the water sweeping up against it from outside. The other three walls were perfect wood, with a single cylindrical lampshade hanging from the ceiling above a huge roll of fabric in the corner. There was a slight chill to the air. Silver was in the corner, snapping the 2 ties wrapping the roll with a small metal tool in his hand. A pocketknife.

It took some effort to suppress the shudder that whispered along my spine at the idea of Silver wielding such a weapon. He got up from his crouch and gave the roll a sharp kick from behind, and it tumbled out onto the floor with a puff of dust, covering half the floor beneath its expanse. Silver rolled his eyes at the miserable excuse for a bed that was all that we had.

I thought about complaining about the bed, but something else came out. "That was a nice string of wicker on the bundle. You could've just untied it," I mumbled.

Silver rolled his eyes, a much less noticeable gesture, what with his hair sopping wet and plastered to his face. He'd dried off considerably from the walk down, but the air was chilly and damp and sudden worry struck me.

My head jerked up. "You're still wet,"

It was a moment before he responded.

"Yeah?" He sat down on the wide, thick mat sitting on the floor. "I'll dry off,"

My lips pursed the way they always do when I felt as troubled as I was. As much as I wished to deny it, there was nothing Silver had done or would do that would deter me from caring at _all_. Pretty stupid of me to think like that already, huh? Tomato-red flush lit my cheeks, but I went to work as quickly as possible as Silver surveyed my actions with mock interest.

"I know I have something in here somewhere…" I scoured the innards of my bag, which had filled progressively after I left New Bark Town. Finally, I found my treasured old red blanket, tattered and patched with the age it had endured. It wasn't huge, but it was fat and warm and had never failed to comfort me before. "Here," I said, smiling. "Take this,"

I got up from my crouch before my bag and plopped down beside him on the mat, one hand outstretched with the blanket as offering. He scrutinized me further before taking it and tossing it over himself.

I lowered myself onto my back on the mat and closed my eyes, a sigh rolling through my lips, contentment welling back into me.

Behind my closed eyelids, a memory from only a short while ago replayed. I was in a white room filled with people with their attentions interlocked in high fives and handshakes and fond hugs. My head was locked far away from where I stood amongst the people, and I felt a swelling of loneliness begin to drag me in as the room emptied. But then, there was something else. A red hot buzz, starting deep in my stomach and then flashing right into my eyes, unlike anything else I'd ever felt before. I was in the grip of something the moment I let my gaze fall to his form, sleeping like a stray dog on the couch.

Before I knew it, the memory had eradicated before me, leaving me shuddering in the draftiness of the room. Then something unimaginable happened, and I guess he had thought I was sleeping and wouldn't notice, because as soon as the cold tremor racked my body, I felt his arm drag half the blanket over my body to let the warmth envelop me as well.

Within some figment of time, I drifted into dreams this way.


	3. Scarlet Monstrosity

**Author's Note:** I am so stupid. I posted this story under the French category. Bon voyage. That's the only French I know, folks. Meanwhile, with 1 review, I was worried that I was writing the uninspired crap that I'd been trying to avoid. My apologies! Please forgive this dumbass!

New chapter! Thanks much for staying with me; we're getting to the grit of things, folks. Reviews?

By the way- if anybody hasn't read my profile, you're missing out on a lot of info, so check it out!

* * *

Morning was just as black as night was in the confinement of the boarding room; lamplight swelled dimly on the walls, dying the entire room honey brown as opposed to the brighter beige it had been when we'd arrived earlier last night. It couldn't have been much later than 7 AM when I was jerked awake at the feeling of a loss of heat beside me. I pieced together my sleep-scrambled head and my eyes flashed to my side, where I knew that Silver had been sleeping. As if to answer my presumption, I heard the door slap close with a rattling bang. Hanging on the door was a note with the words,

"_You both are staying here as long as is required to fix the wall"_ Scribbled in fuzzy handwriting. Or maybe it appeared like that because I was half-asleep.

Groaning, I snatched up my hat and bag from the corner of the room and stumbled after the redhead striding swiftly down the hall, but my brain- stupefied and half in my dreams- wouldn't cooperate with the gait I was trying to keep up, so much that I nearly tripped and fell.

"Hey, where ya going?" I slurred, adjusting my hat on my head. Silver kept up his pace with surprising alertness; how long had he been awake? And what time was it?

He crammed his hands in his pockets and came to a complete stop. "I have somewhere to go, and it's none of your business where,"

I pouted, whipped awake by his harshness. "But what about our battle?"

"It'll have to wait. I had something to accomplish here and it went undone thanks to you," His gray eyes narrowed into slits.

"What did I do?" I said, reaching a hand to catch his sleeve as he turned to leave. "And what were you trying to accomplish?"

There was an audible whoosh of air and then the sound of flesh smacking flesh as he slapped my hand away. For a minute, he stood there, grappling with his frustration, refusing to meet my gaze. My smarting hand gradually fell to my side.

"You ask too many questions," he growled at last.

I folded my arms. "I wouldn't have to if you'd just tell me,"

And for another moment this staring contest continued, until Silver gave me a simple arrogant shrug and took down the hall again. "If you must know, I'm looking for Lance,"

"Lance?"

"The Champion of Johto, of course," Silver flashed me a look that labeled me as an idiot just for asking. "Once he's crushed, I can leave for Kanto to defeat its champion,"

"Crush is a harsh word," I mumbled, to be silenced by the sight of his fists clenching. For the first time there was a new aura to the curious air he always carried; seething of danger.

"And _you_," He grappled with the word. "If it weren't for you, I would've found him last night,"

I recounted all the information I had in my head concerning Lance; he was a Dragon-type master, his grandfather was an elder here at the Dragon's Den… "So you thought that Lance was here?"

Silver didn't answer, for his long stride had already taken him halfway up the stairs. I scurried faster up the steps in the quietest manner that I could manage, Sorrel dragging my bag behind me.

"Slow down! You still didn't tell me- why didn't you leave when you didn't find Lance?"

Silver whipped his head around with a glare of fury lighting his eyes. "I waited for you, remember? Do I have to explain everything?"

I swallowed that somberly, sheepishly stricken by his anger. "So I guess you don't want to battle then?"

He walked on in silence.

"So what do you want to do then?" I giggled. There was an instant change in the type of quiet that screamed through the room. Silver half turned his head, red blush spreading on his face.

"I was kidding!" I laughed. He let out a nervous bark of a chuckle and continued up the steps with the intensity of his anger gone and his head bowed slightly.

He turned back to look at me with his mouth curled into a slight frown. "I'll battle you. But the elders still want their wall fixed,"

He then refocused his gaze further up the staircase, where a brighter light swelled at the end of it; the main lobby, where elders would surely be.

"Silver," I grinned, the boast of a plan evident on my face. "I have an idea,"

… … … … … … … … …

And so my plan was in motion; Silver and I crouched right in the entrance to the lobby from the staircase, drilling hushed instructions to our pokémon. Silver had a Honchcrow and his Croconaw out, and both were inching toward the room. Annie and Sorrel were crouched in front of me, readying to leap in.

"All right you guys, make some noise!" I hissed.

And as if we'd set fire to their feet, the four of them darted into the room, yapping and crying out. Sorrel immediately took for the man who'd let us into the room last night; leaping onto his back and howling like a hyena. Croconaw and Annie started to dance merrily in the center of the room, the latter tripping over her own little feet but having a blast doing it. All the while Honchcrow did spirals in the air and squawked his lungs out. I couldn't help but laugh at the uproar they caused in mere seconds; the elders leaped up onto their feet with surprising swiftness for their age and a few started shaking their walking sticks at them and making wild swats for Honchcrow.

I looked over at Silver, who was watching the scene unfold with equal amusement. His eyebrows were raised, his shoulders rising and fell in a silent chuckle. I turned back to watch; one of the elders had snatched up Sorrel around her slender, mink-like waist, startling her. With a shriek of "CYND!", she spurted a huge puff of black smoke from the collar of flame around her neck that engulfed the room in split seconds.

I gestured urgently to Silver, a pantomime that screamed, "Come on!"

We sprang to our feet and made a mad dash through the smoke, straight ahead into the hallway across from the one we'd been hiding in. Just as I reached the midway point of the room, my foot caught the edge of something cylindrical and slippery- probably a cane- and before I could catch myself, I lost my balance and was thrown onto my side on the floor, just as the smoke had begun to clear.

"Dammit, Lyra!"

Suddenly, I felt a strong arm haul me up by waist and carry me into the next hallway, where there was not a plume of smoke. We collapsed in a heap of arms and legs in the corridor, Silver spluttering obscenities as he picked himself up.

"Thank you," I said, averting my eyes from his glare.

He dusted himself off. "Yeah, well, whatever. Let's just get out of here,"

We walked in silence down the hall, but this silence wasn't of the cold sort that signified being ignored. There was still that warm feeling swelling from me; whether it was from his strange presence or from the hilarity of watching our pokémon put on a circus for the elders, I couldn't tell. We kept close to the wall, where the light of the lanterns couldn't hit us directly; only shade our faces with their pale gold light. After only a few doors, we reached one without a lit lantern.

I pressed an ear to the wall to listen, not a difficult task considering the thin walls. Not a sound rustled from inside the room. I nodded at Silver, and he pressed his back against the door and heaved. There was a quick snapping sound before the door was thrown open behind Silver's shove.

We stepped silently inside the room, and as expected, there was a rugged, circular window carved into the wooden wall. I could make out the faint lights of a row of outdoor torches seeping into the room.

I smiled at Silver, who looked slightly incredulous.

"Hey! Did you think I couldn't formulate a decent plan?" I held a hand over my heart in mock offense.

He gave me nothing but a quick smirk, busying himself with the task of prying the glass out of the window. There was a whisper of a cracking sound, and he planted his hand on the glass and pushed without a grain of force; the circular plate of glass fell helplessly from the sill, clattering onto the wood outside.

In a single, deft movement, he thrust himself through the open hole left behind, stepping onto the wood porch outside. I grimaced at the look of that window. Little bits of jagged glass and splintered wood stuck up from the sill, looking more like a death trap than anything I'd ever seen.

Silver folded his arms and shot a challenging look at me from outside. "What are you waiting for?"

My face went deep red, my fists curling instinctively in embarrassment. I hated being mocked. "Nothing," I grasped onto the edge of the window and yanked myself through, stumbling out onto the wood. "See? I did it," I huffed.

"Great. Now where are our Pokémon?"

Just as the words left his mouth, there was a rippling in the water. From atop a small red scale, Annie clung. The edged scale split through the surface of the murky, smelly water, and she and Croconaw hobbled up onto the platform. Sorrel dashed from the entrance end of the Den and leapt into my arms.

"You guys OK?" I laughed as Sorrel licked my face. "Did you have fun?"

Annie nodded her head up and down, jumping back onto Croconaw's back.

Silver cocked his head, observing the chemistry between his Water-type and my Poison-type. "They sure seem to get along well," He drew an awkward hand through his hair, shutting his eyes. "We should get out of here,"

I nodded. "Savvy, I need a ride!"

I yanked her pokeball from my bag and from it burst my Carvanha, right into the water. She opened her mouth and uttered a happy cry as I gathered Sorrel and Annie and clambered onto her back. She took off like a bullet; Aqua Jet taking us all the way to the opposite end of the cave in seconds. I leapt off and returned Savvy, watching Silver step onto the rock of the cave floor from off his Croconaw's back.

As we exited the last door of the cave and morning's white light exploded into our faces, a realization dawned on me.

"Uh, I don't have anything to fly on," Honchcrow wasn't big enough for the both of us. I thought mournfully of the heavy bodied Fearow from last night, and where he'd headed off to. Just as that memory revisited me, a miracle occurred. Because there, perched on a stick jutting between the rocks of the mountain, was the Fearow. I knew it was the same one- he had the greenish-yellow coloration to him that other Fearow didn't. He was doing nothing but preening at his feathers. I reached for an empty pokeball in my bag and Sorrel and Annie tensed at my side.

Silver folded his arms upon realizing what I was about to do. "Well well well, let's see if you can catch a _Flying_-type, and a shiny one at that,"

His challenge only fueled me; I pointed straight at the Pokémon. "Annie, use Poison Jab! Fire Spin, Sorrel, after her!" Annie dashed forward with tremendous speed and leapt at the unsuspecting Fearow with her feet steeped in glowing magenta venom. Her front paws crashed into the Fearow, knocking him from his perch and onto the ground. Sorrel leapt into action then, blasting a twister of fire at the crashed Fearow, tightening and swelling around him.

"Good job, guys!" I cheered, hopping with the excitement. "Sorrel, Swift!"

From the Quilava's mouth burst a ray of stars, straight into the spinning column of flames.

"Great job, girls! Now stop!"

Sorrel obediently cut off the Fire Spin and the Swift and backed up to see the result of our attacks. Completely beaten, the Fearow could barely make it to its feet. I chucked the empty pokeball in my hand at the Fearow as hard as I could. It spun in range of the Fearow and plotted down onto its head, and an intense white glow proceeded to engulf the Fearow into a sheer silhouette. Once the pokémon had vanished, the ball lay quivering in the singed grass for a moment. One. Two…

"Three," I grinned. The ball remained completely still; I, however, bounded into the air and scooped up the pokeball. "Yes! My Fearow!"

Silver remained in a state of silent unhappiness as he watched me hug the ball to my chest. Immediately, I pressed the center release, and Fearow emerged from the pokeball, burned and tired. I dug through my bag again, this time for a Super Potion, and held the spray to its mouth. The Flying-type eagerly absorbed the liquid, and its wounds began to dissipate before my eyes.

"You need a nickname," I muttered, scanning him over. "You know, when you left me at the foot of the Dragon's Den last night and went up the side of the mountain, it was like you were floating," This speculation brought up an idea.

"How's about Floater? Do you like it, boy?" Floater crowed out happily at it; so that was it then. Floater.

* * *

Floater brought me down for a slow descent over the Lake of Rage, and Honchcrow, carrying Silver, descended beside us. The lake glittered in the embrace of the morning light, lapping against the grassy plain surrounding it. A tiny house stood at the edge of the water with a line fishing rods propped up against its side. There was not a soul in sight. Even with the noiselessly sparkling scenery, something felt deadly wrong. I shook off the aura as the ground rose up to meet us, and I hopped off of Floater's back.

"Thanks, Floater," Once he was back in his pokeball, I turned to Silver with a daring look. "Finally! Let's-"

Suddenly, there was a tremendous lashing of light, far too rapid for me to detect a single color. My eyes burned, and I clenched a hand over my eyes in the pain.

"What the hell was that?" Silver shouted.

I rubbed the tears from my eyes. "Owww… I don't know,"

In the background, the unmistakable roar of a Gyarados erupted throughout the lake. I stared through my tear soaked vision over the water's clear surface, trying to see beyond the trees.

In the lake was a Gyarados, all right.

Its scales glistened a smooth red under the sun, the pearl white teeth glistening, the blue eyes bright with feral rage. In its open mouth, an orange ball formulated, ready to be blasted.

Silver was shaking his head, bracing himself to run. "Aw, shit…"

Suddenly, the orange ball became a blinding white beam of light, headed straight for where we were standing.

I screamed, a strangled, shrill sound from the back of my throat, and leapt for the underbrush lining the lake while Silver jumped in the opposite direction. The Hyper Beam made impact with the grassy ground right between us, blasting up chunks of earth and rock where it hit. The Gyarados roared savagely again, another orange ball collecting in its throat. An electric shock gripped my spine, paralyzing me in terror. Just as the powerful beam was unleashed from its mouth, something long and firm grasped me around my face, eclipsing my screams.

A man's voice hissed into my ear. "Shh! I'm getting you out of here!"

"No! Let GO!" I shrieked, clawing at his arm. I succeeded in tearing it away from my mouth, but now his elbow was pressing against my collarbone, his arm dragging me from underneath my chin. All I could do was scream as I was dragged away.

… … … … … … …

The man hauled me into Mahogany's Pokémon Center, apologizing furiously. He was certainly… strange looking. He had a cape draped over his body and spiky red hair crowning his head, with a proud and powerful demeanor. My first idea was that he was that he'd just won a costume contest.

He paced back in forth in front of me. "I'm sorry I had to drag you out by surprise like that, but what were you doing out there in the middle of the rampage? I thought there was a warning posted outside of the passage kiosk not to enter the Lake?"

I backed away from him. "I flew directly in from above, for your information. Who are you?"

"You don't know who I am?" He stated this more as a fact than a question. "It's Lance, miss. And you are?"

I gulped down my shock. "Uh, I'm Lyra. Nice to meet you," I lied.

This was Lance. Lance, the _champion_! But what was _he_ doing here?

He smiled, sensing my whir of confusion. "So you've seen the red Gyarados now. It's shininess… There's been speculation that radio signals are being sent out from somewhere nearby the lake, but authorities don't know where," He folded his arms, a graveness falling to his features. "I've been doing my own investigation,"

"And have you come across anything suspicious?" I asked, piqued with interest.

"I've found that the radio signals are coming from a souvenir shop in the middle of town. I was about to infiltrate when I saw you fly over," Lance paused in his pace, glaring down at me. "What were you thinking?"

"I told you, I flew over and didn't see the Gyarados. Somebody was with me-"

Silver. _Silver…! _In a second, a whip of terror hit me in the chest, and I leapt to my feet. "Silver! He's still at the lake!"

Lance looked belligerent. "And Silver is…?"

I whipped my head in his direction, snatching his arm and tugging. "You're the champion, aren't you? Help me!"

"What are you talking about, Lyra?"

I rattled through my head quickly for an answer, but my brain was cooked beyond help. "I don't know!" I wailed. "We just have to stop that Gyarados, now!"

The Pokémon Center's doors burst open before me, and before I could control myself, I was at a full sprint toward the kiosk that marked the passage between Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage. I heard Lance's exasperated shouts from behind me, but paid him little mind as my hands slammed into the kiosk's front entrance. The doors were closed and locked, pasted with irrelevant warnings and apologies due to the Gyarados' rampage. I shouted out in frustration and gave the door a hard kick, to no avail.

"Floater!" I released the Fearow from his pokeball and mounted his back in one quick movement. "Over and into the lake, Floater!"

Gusts of air crashed into the grassy ground as Floater launched himself into the air immediately, passing over the kiosk in split seconds. The sparkling red Gyarados was twisting and writhing in the lake, being pummeled by a Feraligatr blasting a Hydro Pump at it from the lakeside. There was intensity burning in the Gyarados' roar, as it swung out its glowing blue tail to sweep over the water's edge, swatting both Feraligatr and the red haired trainer commanding it into two thick trunked trees. I watched in horror as Silver picked himself up off the ground with a stream of fresh blood flowing from his temple to his chin. The Feraligatr's legs were buckling beneath it, scratches and dirt coating its blue body.

I pressed my weight into Floater's shoulder blades; the signal to drop. "Down there!"

Floater quivered in hesitation as another roar blasted through the lake; agony rattled from both sides.

"Silver!" I tumbled off of Floater's back and rushed to a Silver I couldn't recognize. His clothes were torn and disheveled; the right side of his face was painted in blood where hair of the same vivid red color clung. He clutched onto his right shoulder and bit against the pain. His eyes were ablaze, glaring viciously into the writhing Gyarados, but I could see his dangerous lapse in strength. The next moment could determine whether he went down. Or maybe the next hour. I didn't care, I wasn't risking either option.

I whipped out 3 pokeballs. "Sorrel! Savvy! Annie!" The trio emerged from their pokeballs to face their giant, outraged foe.

"Lyra… what are you doing?" Silver's voice was hoarse and angry, and he braced himself against the tree to stay standing. I turned around in the heat of the battle to knit my eyebrows in a begging expression.

"Just relax, please. Don't worry about it,"

I readied an empty pokeball in my hand and could offer Silver no more as I returned to stare into the eyes of the deadliest opponent I'd ever faced.


	4. Restraints of Deceitful Sorts

**Author's Note: **Yay for violent Gyarados rampages! I'm surprised. Did anybody notice that Silver's Croconaw evolved…? Anyways: A little blood coming up, but not buckets or any grotesque descriptions. This chapter's also a bit short but very significant in relationship development. Several "Aww!" moments. Anybody who also supports Ikarishipping please check out Noir.89, link's on my profile!

Merry Christmas everyone!

* * *

I gritted my eyes shut for a few terrified seconds, as the weakened Gyarados' roar blasted over the Lake and undoubtedly through Mahogany.

Long range attacks were my only option, with the Shiny pokémon reigning over the water. The trees could fall with a single slap of Gyarados' tail. As of this moment, the safest place to be was the ground.

Suddenly an explosion of rock beneath my feet snatched my body from the ground, dropping me for a crash landing on my side into a pile of fishing rods beside the lakeside house, one of which poked into my back with biting pain. Blood dribbled from the cut and stained the wood of one of the rods.

The hooked tools clawed at my thighs as I grappled my way out, an Aqua Tail simultaneously slapping down beside Sorrel, Annie, and Savvy, who parried their way away from the attack. Grimacing, I realized this was probably what had tossed me from where I stood before.

"Sorrel, hit the water with a Flamethrower, as hard as you can!" I cried, rushing up to where my pokémon were positioned before the monster. "And Annie, Toxic Spikes!"

Yes, I knew the possible consequences of this, but no regrets fell upon me as my Quilava rushed to perform an intense Flamethrower, causing an eruption of steam while Annie's Toxic Spikes were thrown in. Violet smoke flooded the lake, the hissing sound so potent that it drowned out the Gyarados' roar of agony as poison literally enveloped it.

I gave my team a quick, satisfied nod. "Great job guys. Now Aqua Jet, Savvy!"

By my side, she encased herself in a veil of water, her body revving with the velocity it was about to display. The split second the choking purple smoke cleared to reveal the beaten Gyarados, she sped from the bank and at the Gyarados, striking it beneath its mouth held agape and blowing its entire body back, burying it in a broad wave of water with the force.

Savvy returned to my side just as speedily as she'd left, and we all stood like beaten trees, awaiting the response of the Shiny. Suddenly, it was as if some sort of anxious beast had been waiting within me, tearing my breath away as the Gyarados came bursting from the surface of the water, charging at us at top speed.

I screamed in fear as it rushed us down. This was my last hope. I made a wild grab for a spherical object in my bag and chucked it at our impending doom. It struck the creature on its head, and its roar grew smaller and smaller into nothing as the pokeball absorbed it. The ball fell to the bank with a plume of steam. I didn't care enough to wait to see whether it had completely captured Gyarados.

"_Silver!" _My feet grappled with the slippery terrain beneath me as I flung myself in his direction.

He sat battered by the tree, which had snapped beneath his and Feraligatr's crash landing. The gushing of blood had darkened and stained his face and jacket while Feraligatr's head lay limp on the broken stump, his blue eyelids unmoving as I approached his trainer.

Gray, hazy splotches began to cloud my vision as my feet brought me nearer and nearer to where he was. Silver was perfectly motionless, his head sagging, red hair curtaining his face as if in shame.

My knees were too weak to stand, crumpling beneath my weight miserably as I kneeled and extended a quivering hand to tap his shoulder.

I had meant to whisper, but my voice cracked. "S-Silver? Come on, wake up," I croaked.

I hadn't noticed before that the tree had broken a few feet above Silver's head, where he first made impact with it. The thing probably snapped his spine.

Snapped his back. As in dead.

The grayness splotching the scenery suddenly flooded into the pit of my stomach like a tsunami, drowning my brain, numbing out my mind to eclipse the wave of mourning just as suddenly as it had come on. I blankly thanked my body for the defense, but there was now no logic left to stop me from falling backwards among my panicked pokémon, into the deep vat of darkness that beckoned to me.

…

…

…

I woke up with a rush of sentience to little noses nudged at my face, licking me awake. I was terribly ticklish, after all.

I squirmed in reflex to the tickling. "Huh?"

My eyelids lifted from my vision, leaving me wide awake beneath the electric blue expanse of midday sunlight over my head. There was a gross stench to the air. Sorrel, Annie, Savvy, and Floater were perched worriedly around where I was seated on the grass.

I heard a voice behind me. Only inches behind me. "You're awake,"

My eyes jolted open with his words, sensing the feeling of his presence near me. A grin spreading from either ear expanded on my face, and with dizzying speed, I flung myself at him, momentarily forgetting both our conditions.

"You're okay!" I squeaked, nuzzling my head into Silver's chest. I was completely flabbergasted, staggered, elated. "I-I can't believe you're okay!"

He groaned, red faced, trying to shove me off. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can you get off me before somebody comes down here and sees this?"

Flustered at last, I crawled off of him and plopped down on the grass.

"Okay, sorry," Once the amazement died down, it was evident that I had made an idiot of myself. I tittered nervously as Silver propped himself up on his elbows.

He cast me a long and tired glare, the effect hindered by the fact that one eye was wincing, streaked with a wide, drying line of blood.

"So you caught it," Defeat sung out into the air around him, his eye flinching closed when a light breeze rippled the grassy plain.

"You're upset,"

No answer.

What could I do? Apologize? But for what, and how? What could I assure him of, when, in the end, he was disappointed about something that he couldn't do with his own strength? Situated a few feet from where we sat silently was a pokeball, striking black with two gold rings around it and a maroon line along the circumference. I'd accidentally used my only Luxury Ball in the excitement. Oh well.

I clambered to my feet, picked up the pokeball, and sat back down beside Silver. His skepticism had brought a deep frown on his scratched face.

I found my own hand, holding the Luxury Ball, reaching out to him.

"Here. It's yours,"

He propped himself up on his elbows, and for a moment, he seemed incapable of speaking. His pale gray eyes moving from my smiling expression to the pokémon I had offered. As beaten as he looked, there was an immense emotion of gratitude welling in his gaze, and I beamed harder.

He held it in his hand and got the feel of it before suddenly falling backwards with an agonized groan.

"Silver! What's wrong?" I scooted closer to him, reconsidering with intense, suffocating worry the potential of his injuries. A quivering arm was clutched over his torso.

"Ah… urgh… I think it might've got a few of my ribs,"

I nodded, and just as I was about to flip open my Pokegear for an ambulance, a sound only distinguishable as audible light grew behind me. I turned around to stare into the eyes of my Quilava. At least, she had _been_ a Quilava. Amazement gripped me as her body glowed pale saffron yellow, swelling to a size rivaling that of an Ursaring. Her flaming red eyes stayed plastered on me as the light disintegrated, leaving behind a towering Typhlosion in its place.

"S-Sorrel?" My lips trembled with amazement. The battle with the red Gyarados had had enough of a monumental effect on her that she had actually evolved. These were things that happened on kid's TV shows. This was the stuff of fairytales, alright.

I laughed hoarsely. "Oh, wow, girl. You're huge," I mused.

Deep red flush spread over her huge face, looking so disproportionately cute now. Silver gaped silently at the effect.

"So that makes Feraligatr and your Typhlosion. What a coincidence," he was deadpanning now, but I couldn't care less.

Pressing a finger to my lips to shush Silver, I dialed in a number on my Pokegear.

"Hello? Hi…. I'm at the Lake of Rage right now. I need an ambulance, fast, please. My… friend... he really needs help…"

* * *

Later, while Silver pouted in the hospital bed I sat beside with two broken ribs and a cut in need of stitches by his ear, my head was busy whirring with presumptions.

"If that Gyarados evolved shiny as a Magikarp through radio wave mutation, there may be more just like it, but even more vicious," I muttered, enraged by the circling of thought. "Who is _doing_ this?"

Silver's groan resonated through the room in response, and he turned his bandaged face towards the window. "For hell's sake, Lyra, you've been going on for an hour. Give it a rest,"

"I won't!" I said, louder than needed. And then I hissed darkly, "I'll crush whoever's doing this,"

When I looked back up from gazing at the pokeballs sitting in my bag, Silver's eyes were boring into mine.

"You'll have to wait for me,"

Wait, what?

"Huh? Why? Lance said that there were suspicious radio waves coming from a souvenir shop in Mahogany. You know who Team Rocket is, right? I think it may be them, Silver! I could to take them down fast,"

Silver looked bewildered and angry. "Wait, when did you meet Lance? And what is with all the _I's_ here, Lyra? I don't think you understand. If you get hurt, I could-" he cut himself off with a choking sound.

He flinched beneath his bandages in order to sell the outburst as pain, but I knew it wasn't from his wounds.

"Silver, look at me,"

He continued to face the other end of the room, but I could see his silver irises inch in my direction in defiance of his will. I folded my arms on the hospital bed, and despite my intentions to sound patient and calm, foreign desperation seeped out.

"If it _is_ Team Rocket, it's just a bunch of stupid grunts that couldn't take a Flamethrower from Sorrel if their lives depended on it. Their boss ran out on them a few years ago, that's how I know,"

At that, he flinched again, but allowed himself to look me fully in the eyes, shocking me with the pleading in them. My heart sped into an electrified gallop. This was not usual Silver behavior.

"Just a few days, until I can get out of here. That's all I'm asking,"

All of a sudden, I could feel my resolve cower and melt pathetically in my stomach like water down a drain. I had been in countless debates with both my mother and Ethan, and never had I lost any with my argumentative wit beside me- yet I had never had I felt so out of winded, so convinced.

_But look what they did to you!_ I wanted to scream. It was welling in my throat. I could feel a ball of heat cutting off my oxygen, dampening my eyes. I had to hiccup tearfully in order to dispel it, but that was the most of it. My head buried itself into the thin white sheets of the bed.

"Okay," I sobbed, defeated. "Alright, I'll wait,"

… … … … …

The remainder of the evening was quiet, more like a river minding its own business than a deathly, awkward silence. I gazed at the slanted beam of orange light streaming from the window on Silver's sleeping form in the bed.

My fingers twirled idly through a fold of the sheets as I waited. Waited, for what, exactly? I watched his chest heave slightly as he slept. As time passed, a tiny yawn melted by surprise from my lips, and I checked my Pokegear for the time. 7:21. Had it been yesterday at this very time, I would be planning to head on to Olivine City to defeat Jasmine, nothing changed, no foreign emotions toying with my body in some sort of twisted puppet show.

How had I been so readily swayed, when I'd wanted with every fiber of me to eliminate those responsible for the red Gyarados' existence? I pondered.

Had it been the torment of the poor Magikarp that had enraged me so much? Was it being thrown around like a rag doll at the Lake of Rage? I hated Team Rocket enough to destroy them, but I cared about the cause of my surrender more. I could feel erosion on my heart like never before as though being held down was killing me. At the same time, this restraint was a good thing. Whether I wanted to consciously admit it, I would much rather be here with Silver.

Later on, my destructive sense of justice overwhelmed me.

* * *

_Dear Silver,_

_You're gonna be so mad at me. I think that you're going to be so pissed off, in fact, that I'm glad you're currently locked in a hospital with cameras and doctors and whatnot._

…

_I can't explain why. I had to go back. I'm sorry, really. __Please don't send anyone after me. And please, please don't go yourself. Knowing that you came for me injured would be worse than anything they could do to me._

_I'm sorry. That's not really fair, is it?_

_Get some rest, _

_Lyra_


	5. A Dreamwork's Delay

**Author's Note: **Amazingly, I don't have a ton to say this time, besides that this chapter is slightly shorter than the others. The way the events will be occurring, this chapter had to be short.

Best wishes for 2011, everyone! Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

_Silver, Blackthorn Medical Center. 7:43 AM._

…

_Dreams are nonexistent; at least, in my head. If sleeping is a raincloud and dreaming is the rain, I guess that means I'm left thirsty in a spot of blackness for however long that I do sleep. There was always a sense of innocence and defenselessness to sleep. You never knew what could hit you while you were distracted without senses or reflexes. Sixteen years of being on an inexhaustible move taught me to be almost completely sleepless, only grabbing a few idle minutes here and there- never an extended period of time. _

…_That day at the Battle Factory was one of those times. There I was, drifting somewhere between conscious and unconscious. I couldn't remember where I'd nodded off, the circumstances of my lapse in attention, or the consequences. I truly couldn't care less. Last time I'd slept for more than half an hour straight had been a couple of days ago. _

_Awareness, soft and red, began to flit through the black void. Just as suddenly as it had come on, heat began to tremble over the outline of my own body. I slowly began to feel my hands and feet waking up, then the tips of my fingers. There was a strange aura to this place between sleep and the real world. The sensation was intensely uncomfortable. Was I going to wake up or what? _

_There was sound floating along the surface, like pounding or echoing, nudging at my consciousness. As I focused my attention on it, it sounded more and more like angry voices. After a few moments of the dull bantering, there was a piercing shriek, flinging me from the state I'd been in into the real world. _

_Before I could even breathe, a pair of huge, soft brown eyes, only inches away from me, stopped the reflex. That same foreign, dreamlike heat sank into my skin as I stared back at her. She had an apologetic look on her face, like she was sorry I was woken up, as I ogled. Her mouth was moving excitedly; words were coming out, but I was too startled to say anything. I was almost glad when she turned and busied herself with dragging me across the room by the arm- that way she couldn't see the red flush on my face, and I could regain my composure. _

_Hmph. Curious things, dreams. _

_I still don't know what hit me that moment…_

_...Lyra._

**... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...**

_Lyra._

…

I had a strange feeling that Silver had woken up by now, looking up over my head into the wisps of early morning cloud. He never seemed to allow himself to rest. I though through a cloud of numbness of the night in the Dragon's Den. How long had he spent so close to me before he was repelled? Mahogany seemed sallow and beaten now that the red Gyarados had finally ended its rampage. For all they knew, it could've simply lost its patience with the pacifistic town and flown away to ravage its way through another city. In my bag sat my 4 pokeballs with my anxious team inside. Somehow I also knew that my team was aware of my abandoning Silver. For a moment, just a moment, I silently stopped in my tracks and turned around with Floater's pokeball in my hand to return to Blackthorn's hospital. Fresh tears cultivated in my lower lids, but were cut off by my eyes closing viciously over them.

To my right, there was the wide berth of Johto's 7th gym, belonging to Pryce. I sighed. Maybe biding some of my time away would help slaughter the guilt…

Suddenly, there was the sound of shoes stepping over the gravel path behind me, freezing me in my own path. Images of Silver and his ghostly gray irises flashed before my eyes as I wheeled around.

The person walking towards me wasn't Silver. It was Lance.

"I see you manage to get yourself into trouble voluntarily, Lyra," he chastised.

I released the buildup in my chest as a sigh of relief. "Lance. How are you?" I said cheerfully.

"I've made some progress, actually. You see that tree over there?" His finger pointed me in the direction of a plain looking conifer tree with a hunk of metal like a Christmas tree topper sitting on top of it.

"Oh?" I whispered.

"The radio waves have been resonating from that very spot. I confronted the storeowners, and my hunch was right. The people in there have been the ones causing the radio waves, but I can't find the source of control. There was a passage leading to a site filled with underground activity, and I plan on checking it out. I wanted to see if you were in the area first, and here you are,"

So that was where it was coming from. A sudden chill went down my spine as the simple image of the average pine tree morphed into something much more sinister.

So the identity of the criminals wasn't completely known, but we were close. I gave Lance an approving smile. "I was planning on checking the place out myself. That's why I came back to this town to begin with, but I'm not so sure what to do now. My friend was injured in the Gyarados' capture and is in the hospital right now, and he really didn't want me to do this. I was thinking about challenging Pryce's gym instead,"

Lance nodded in agreement. "You'd probably be better off working on your team's strength against him and then joining me. Speaking of which- give me your Pokegear number. I'll contact you with details,"

I recited the numbers as Lance dialed them into his own device. I noticed that he was stealing glances at my thigh; the fishing rods that I'd fallen into had torn open a gash on my leg, and it had been wrapped with gauze to stop the bleeding. I admit that the particular placement did look a bit... provocative.

Once we'd finished exchanging, he took off in the other direction, looking back at me over his shoulder. "Good luck against Pryce, Lyra. I hear he's at his best in the morning,"

Just as he was about to reenter the "souvenir shop", I remembered a question I'd been meaning to bring up.

"Say, Lance-" I shouted across the silent terrain of Mahogany. "How did you deal with those two guys working in the storefront?"

He burst into a fit of laughter. "Two words. Hyper and Beam,"

My mouth floundered at the very idea. "_Hyper Beam?_ Lance! Did you kill them?"

"No, just knocked them out. They're in the hospital right now. Dragonite didn't hit them too hard,"

With that said, the door of the souvenir shop slapped closed behind the champion, leaving me alone before the doors of the Ice-type gym.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Sure enough, every inch of Pryce's gym was coated with a layer of ice. Bouncing off of rock after rock to get to the evasive gym leader had easily covered the expanse of an hour. But I'd done it, and I was standing before him as I thought.

"A new challenger, how refreshing," Pryce had a dominative, intimidating air to him despite his age. Locked in his eyes was a void of pure coldness that echoed through the entire gym. The potency of his aura reminded me of Silver's.

I nodded. "It's an honor to meet you. I see you know why I'm here,"

"I have been training pokémon since before you were born, and thus, I do not lose easily. Allow me to demonstrate, young lady,"

The ref came alive on the edge of the icy battlefield.

"This will be a 4-on-4 battle! The first trainer to have all their pokémon faint loses!" He waved a deep red flag high in the air. "Ready? Begin!"

Pryce waited politely for me to throw out my first pokémon. "Annie, come on out!" I shouted, flinging out her pink heal ball. The light vanished, leaving Annie standing unswervingly in the middle.

Pryce simply smiled as he pressed the center release of a plain, worn looking pokeball. From it burst a mammoth, impossibly colossal pokémon with gleaming white tusks jutting from its mouth and an avalanche of brown fur cascading over its body. It towered over Annie like an apartment building to a little kid. Annie didn't flinch, staring her opponent straight in the eye.

I had taught Annie specific attacks to counter these kinds of situations.

"Annie, use Gunk Shot!" This was the most powerful Poison-type move. Its low accuracy wouldn't be an issue with a foe as large and slow as her current one.

She opened her small mouth as wide as she could and blasted a column of pure purple acid into the Mamoswine's broad face. The latter roared out in agony as the poison drenched its body.

"Mamoswine, hit the ground with a Blizzard!" Pryce ordered. My head jerked back in shock at the strategy.

Mamoswine shot out a wind studded with icy chunks at the ice of the ground, and from the struck place on the field a wall of pure ice grew between the two pokémon. Annie, caught by surprise, choked off her Gunk Shot and leapt away from the wall.

"Jump on the wall and use Toxic Spikes, Annie!" She obeyed, albeit confusedly, bounced onto the wall, and then into the air, chucking out an onslaught of little violet bombs at Pryce's pokémon.

"Ice Fang, now!"

Right while Annie was in midair attacking, Mamoswine slung up its ice-crusted tusks to catch Annie right out of the air and fling her backwards. She squealed in pain as the ground rose up to meet her, bouncing her little body to stop right in front of me. Before I could rush over to her, though, she had gotten back on her feet, shaking off the blow. I admired her tiny-bodied tenacity.

Mamoswine had taken a horrible beating though, and was poisoned beyond help. Not even a Rest Full Restore could stop the poison from progressing. I knew it and Pryce knew it.

"Now use Captivate!" Annie loved this move. She dashed forward a few feet, releasing a wide, entrancing gray aura over the field. It glittered off the ice in a phantomlike glow. The rays struck Mamoswine head on, as the barrier it had made had been destroyed by the Ice Fang. Its special attack would be sliced in half now; no more ice walls. The only way to deal Annie valid damage would be to go in for a physical attack, and she could counter with Gunk Shot before that happened.

Something felt deathly off, though. Pryce was too strong to allow such an easy loss. I pondered whether to take the initiative to attack first.

Pryce beat me to the punch. "Mamoswine, use Earthquake and then go in for an Ice Fang!"

Oh crap. Annie immediately clung to a nearby rock in order to keep herself above the shaking, bursting hunks of ground as Mamoswine charged deftly over the quivering earth.

My teeth ground together. "Cover the field with another Gunk Shot!"

Annie gave me a little nod and spewed a truckload of poison from her small body, coating the space between her and Mamoswine. The Ice-Ground type was skid to a stop and back away from her, or else be enveloped in the bubbling, deadly acid. The two stared each other down, Annie weak from the jab she'd taken from those tusks, and Mamoswine flaccid and groggy with its coat sticky with poison. Its HP was surely in straggles.

"It looks like I underestimated the power of your Nidoran, Lyra," Price mused from the opposing side of the gym. "But we will not lose to her. Use Earthquake again, Mamoswine!"

The beaten Mamoswine slammed its huge feet into the ground, starting the shaking and bursting all over again. Annie slipped off of the rock she clung to and right into the super-effective attack. All of a sudden, the sea of poison Annie had made began to dissipate. While she was being tossed around, there was no hope of it being replaced. We were open for physical attack.

"Now Ice Fang!" he ordered. Mamoswine flung up its head and charged at Annie, speed gathering with every step. I smiled. Exactly what I'd wanted.

I nearly leapt up with the vivacity of my command. "Poison Jab!"

She bounded off of a still-jigging piece of earth and flung herself high above Mamoswine's head. Mamoswine bellowed in shock as she brought her venom-steeped arms down onto the pokémon's head. At last, its feet were pulled from beneath it, flinging it to the ground with a noble thud.

The ref broke his silence, running up to the tremendous, motionless pokémon on the field as Annie landed on her feet on the broken ground.

"Mamoswine is unable to battle. Lyra's Nidoran is the winner of this match!

A mask of serene surprise crossed Pryce's features as he was forced to return the fainted pokémon to its pokeball.

"Magnificent," he muttered. "But as I promised, I will not lose,"

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Sorrel's Focus Punch collided beneath the unprotected belly of Pryce's Walrein, throwing it effortlessly across the room. As of the moment, Focus Punch was Sorrel's most powerful move. My newly-evolved Typhlosion and I watched with immense pride as the referee made his judgment.

"Dewgong is unable to battle. Lyra is the winner!" he went to grab something from the bench, handing it to Pryce.

The old man approached me with a look of contentment on his face. In his open hand was a small box, held open, with the Glacier badge inside.

"That was an unforgettable battle. Thank you," He watched as I eagerly placed the badge in my portable award case amongst my other 5 badges.

"You're welcome. I hope we can battle again someday," Just as the words had left my lips, there was a vicious ringing from my Pokegear. Puzzled, I flipped it open to read the caller ID.

I pressed the device to my ear. "Lance?"

"Hi, Lyra," his voice was muffled with poor reception. "I'm in the underground facility right now. It turns out that Team Rocket is responsible for the radiowaves, and this is their headquarters. Somehow, they formed back together, and with a vengeance. There's too many of them. I need your help,"

So I was right. Team Rocket. The scumbags, the pathetic bastards...

I gritted my teeth over my answer, stepping on the pad that would teleport me to the front door.

"I'll be there in a minute,"


	6. Defining the Weak

**Author's Note: **I had a terrible week. This is an extremely important chapter with a lot of emotion, and so I wrote it carefully, but then when the handheld device I use to write away from my computer died on me, I lost about 2,000 words worth of material. So, yeah… Sorry for the lateness, I hope what I rewrote is still sufficient.

This next chapter is why this is rated T, folks. There is a good sequence of violence coming up, with some bad language as well. Nothing too bad, though. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Chrome-like silver shades. It was on the female's boots, on the male's belts, in the evil of their eyes. Shivers embraced my tight spine as I continued down the hall with Sorrel walking beside me, coming to a stop before a thick set of blue double doors. Taking a deep breath, my leg swung up and kicked the doors wide open.

A siren screeched to life as I walked on without a pause in pace, louder than it had been when I first entered. Lance had probably made quite a show of himself, I realized. But then again, it was natural reflex for people to freeze in reverence to someone like the champion. My feet moved me forward and around a corner, where two grunts waited, smirking.

Sorrel immediately clenched her white, knifelike teeth and glared as her collar of flame spit to life.

The pair of grunts, a woman and a man, laughed.

The woman, clad in black and silver like the others of her rank, stepped forward to juggle a pokeball in her right hand. "So _you_ tripped the alarm this time? Lance was a bit too much, but a kid? What a joke. Let's battle,"

I kept my lips pursed as I stepped into the battle headfirst, one among many.

She and the grunt attempted to double battle against me and thus overwhelm me early on and prompt my departure. They had another thing coming if they were dumb enough to think that I was going to betray Silver while he was hurt to be here and then leave so easily. Sorrel's newly learned Double Edge crushed every and any pokemon they and the next 5 sets of grunts threw at me. Before I knew it, I'd cleared my way through the entire east wing of the headquarters without breaking a sweat.

I walked through a pair of open doors into a wide, winding core room. To my right I could hear the whirr of electricity pulsing through a conductor, screeching unendingly despite the alarm. Directly across from where I stood was another hallway; I assumed this was the west wing, where Lance was pounding through the remainder of the grunts, toward the heart of the base.

* * *

_Silver, Blackthorn Medical Center. 10:29 AM. _

…

Groggy morning light sank through my window from between a rare crack in the dark clouds overhead. Luck made it so my room was positioned facing Blackthorn's descending ledge, which when continued upon would lead to New Bark Town. My entire chest was numb and hard to move with the painkillers, so I settled with lifting my head and lying on my cheek to face where Lyra had sat. My hand was dangling over the side of the bed, lonely coldness developing where the warmth of her hand had left. She'd probably just gone to the bathroom or something, waiting for me to wake up.

What a dream I'd had. Of all the things I was thinking about lately- how pathetic, how ungrateful I was- I'd dreamed about our time in the Battle Factory. How I'd first met her. And then that sensation; the intense, blissful aura I could feel even in my sleep…

I couldn't help but wonder. Was she making me weaker? That was the only word I could think of that could define how she was changing me, because she was doing _something_. I could feel my walls crumbling in front of me. I had to get out before she destroyed me. I couldn't allow myself to be weak. Not with the goals I'd set.

A beep of a meter over my head disillusioned me, and I allowed myself to glance over to the clock ticking away in the corner of the room. It had been 20 minutes since I'd woken up. She couldn't have just been going to the bathroom. My hand wandered over the metal of the seat beside the bed. Cold, traceless. She couldn't have been here within the last hour. Her bag was gone.

I answered my quickening heartbeat with a reasonable idea. She could have just been freshening up in the bathroom- she had been thrown around by a red Gyarados, spent the night in the Den, and sat in a germy hospital. Admittedly, her appearance was always flawless and warm, but an hour in a hospital bathroom was just too hard to believe.

My eyes analyzed the entire room for some sort of a sign of her leaving, but my range was limited from having to stay flat on my back or else risking the full pain of my broken ribs. Out of the very corner of my eye I could make out the shape of a square spot of white sitting on the side table. Groaning painfully, I guided my hand over the wood of the side table for the paper, finally catching it between my fingers and holding it before my upturned.

It was written in the dark purple ink of a girl's pen, a cutesy flourish added to the end of corresponding letters. The words started out lighthearted in nature, with a subtle intensity and solemnity taking over as the letter dappled into the true purpose of it being written. My eyes narrowed, my heart convulsing like it had been struck with a thunderbolt as I finished off the text.

_Get some rest,_

_Lyra._

She couldn't do this to me. The most earnest form of betrayal sat blatantly on a piece of paper before me, somehow holding as much soul and sincerity as it would if she'd told me in person. I could see her face now, as I leapt from the bed and ripped of the blue piece of crap they'd shoved me in and traded it in for my street clothes.

I knew exactly what would happen when I found her. She would be apologetic and scared before my rage, those ridiculously eroticizing brown eyes of hers wide while she tries to explain herself, while I try to restrain myself. Whether it would be from clubbing her on the head out of fury or breaking down out of sheer anxiety, I didn't know. The two emotions intertwined and mocked me in an indistinguishable blob in my head.

When I'd all of begged her not to leave, she had complied without a fraction the argument I'd been preparing for. At the moment she seemed to care more about what I'd wanted then what her dumbassed sense of justice did. And now, this.

My team was downstairs in the built-in Pokémon center, and I didn't have the time to go down and get them before I left. I would just have to suffice. Once the painful chore of dressing myself was over, I flipped out my knife and slid its blade around the delicate wood of the window frame. The glass slipped out easily with my shove, and I climbed out of the ground floor window slowly, narrowly avoiding a spasm of pain from my lower chest as I exited the room. I inhaled the blast of morning light that greeted me once I was completely outside of the walls of the white, plastic-smelling hospital.

As I strolled closely alongside the building, I remembered her words to me yesterday, assuring me of Team Rocket's weakness in battle.

She hadn't known, nor did I have the guts to terrify her by telling her, that battling was not the only way that the darkest of Team Rocket could force you into submission.

* * *

_Lyra._

…

Just as I lifted my foot to step forward once more, something dark and humanlike appeared in the hallway, directly across from me. My fingers flexed around Sorrel's pokeball, where I'd returned her to after the last battle. The figure made its way into the dim artificial light of the main room.

"Lyra! I knew only you could take out a series of grunts that fast. How many have you gotten down?" Lance approached me with his arms folded smugly.

The tension vanished from my body as relief instead of hostility. "Maybe 6 pairs or so, by now. And you?"

"14, independently," he answered casually. Beside him, his Dragonite's mouth curled into a prideful smile.

I watched as lightheartedly as possible as Lance scanned my face over. "You look upset for some reason. May I ask what the problem is?"

I grimaced, a pair of cool, silvery irises flashing in the back of my mind. My attempt to avert my gaze was in vain though. Lance had a remarkable sense of perceptiveness.

His friendly smile bridled into a frown. "Is it about that guy that got beaten by the mutated Gyarados back at the Lake?"

My teeth pressed into my lower lip, perfectly silent.

For the first time ever, I saw a whip of irritation flash in Lance's composed features. His voice was biting when he spoke. "Did you _ever_ consider that maybe you're being dragged down by this guy, Lyra?"

I jolted backwards in shock. Images of me, handing Silver the red Gyarados that I, rightfully, had caught. Me, giving him the TM Water Pulse. Me, by his side in the hospital instead of defeating Jasmine in Olivine City. A flame of anger flickered to life inside my chest, burning my eyes and forcing wetness from them to fill my eyelids. Tightness gripped my throat before I could retaliate, leaving me shuddering with disbelief before him. How humiliating.

I was stuttering incoherently, trying to explain my emotions. Nothing but babbling came out.

Lance had looked the other way to avoid confronting me to my face, stricken with such powerful, speechless anger as it was.

"I didn't mean to upset you," he said. "But I think you're losing your senses over someone who hasn't done anything for you. You can't afford that kind of foolishness, not with your potential,"

Through my black, soundless void of denial, I heard the truth of his words. A numb little smile touched my mouth as I moved my head from left to right- not in defiance, but in a foreign state of pleading. "You may be right. But please, let me be a fool. Just for now,"

Lance's eyes grew wide with the desperation I'd exhibited. I hadn't noticed until that moment of silence between us that the alarm had gone quiet. I'd been so caught up in the battles, and now this confrontation, that I hadn't even noticed the vanishing of the background noise. Lance's Dragonite had gotten the awkward end of our exchange, and had busied himself with preening his wide blue wings and spitting small plumes of fire into the air.

Lance shut his dark eyes, a sigh of resignation tumbling from his mouth as he waved over his pokémon. His eyes were cold and professional as he looked down at me.

"I should've bitten my tongue. I apologize," Lightness returned to his tone as the subject, inevitably, changed. "I'll take the north wing from here since that's where the Executives are likely to be, and you get the south. That way, if I need your help, the path will be clear for you to get to me,"

I nodded, eliminating the remnants of my tears with a swipe of my sleeve across my face. "That sounds great. I'm sorry for that silly break down,"

Some emotion still remained in his eyes, as if his gist had been cut off unfinished, as he turned and swept from the room with his Dragonite and his champion's regality in every step.

And that was it. He was gone.

Cursed emotion rebounded into my mind before I could replace the steel wall, crippling me to lean back on the wall behind me as soon as I was sure Lance had left.

He'd been right.

I closed my eyelids over budding tears, pain burning my heart as I formulated my resolution. This would mark the end of my carelessness dragging me down further.

From inside my blurry vision, Silver's image rebuilt itself in my head. I remembered agonizingly the lasciviousness that reaped the private aura that he held me with, the pale gray luster that would flash in his eyes when I managed to evoke rare emotion in him- the unfeeling ghost that he was. Guilt squeezed my gut at the idea of trying to leave him behind, especially when it was at least partially my fault that what happened to him happened at all.

But it was what I had to do. I had such a delicate cause, and I would become the world's strongest trainer. No matter what. We were, at least on the surface, rivals. That was how it would have to stay, as truly and passionately as I wished to say otherwise. Maybe this would be better for both of us.

I blinked away the last of my tears, finally opening my eyes to the silent white setting around me.

Wetness splotched my cheeks in sticky lines, dotting my red shirt. Pathetic. I swatted them away with a wipe of my sleeve and forced my legs to stand and turn towards the south wing. Just as my foot lifted forward, vibrations burst from the Pokegear clipped to my bag. As much as I abhorred the idea of speaking to someone right now, I snatched it off the strap and held it to my ear, reading the caller ID with a spark of worry.

"Hello?" Dammit. My voice was still shaking with the memory of tears from mere moments ago.

A matronly, practiced voice answered me. "Hello, this is Blackthorn Medical Center. Have I reached Miss Lyra?"

Instant realization struck me. It was instinctive manners that stopped me from snapping the device shut and speeding from the room. "Yes," I mumbled to hide my violently quivering voice.

"I suppose I should just skip to the main message," she sighed, a striking distinction from her previously composed tone. "The patient that you helped us admit, Silver, has gone missing. The letter you had personnel leave for him is also gone. We were wondering if you had any idea where he was…? Miss? _Miss?"_

I had fallen back against the wall in my panic at the confirmation

+. It took me a good minute to regain my breath before I could reply, holding the phone back beside my ear.

"I'm sorry," I shook my head stupidly. "I can help find him. W-when was the last time he was seen?"

She debated with my question. "The last time we saw him was at about 10 AM when a nurse left the note by his bedside, and he was still asleep. We've scoured our records, and we've found nothing on him. No birth records, no parental information, nothing. You're the only connection to him we have,"

"Okay. I'll help you out any way I can,"

"Please do. He is in no condition to be pursuing trouble, wherever he is. As soon as you find him, be sure to get him back here, alright? Thank you, Lyra,"

I snapped the phone closed and swept back towards where I'd come from without granting her a closing sentence- first fast walking, then sprinting. My shoes pounded against the slippery tile in a rapid thumping pattern, echoing in my head.

_Why, Silver? Why didn't you just listen to me?_

I could instantly feel my body begin to tucker out beneath me; I had stayed up all night keeping watch over Silver, had a gym battle, and taken out partnership after partnership of grunts. Despite knowing this, I hissed at my weakness and pushed myself faster until the gray walls blurred.

Just as I was rounding a corner, my entire body rebounded against some sort of appendage, flinging me backwards with such force that I gasped a cough as my spine hit the cold floor. I lay there spluttering on my back, too tired to jump to my feet automatically as I'd wished to.

"Look what we have here,"

My head whipped up with the sudden appearance of the predatory voice. I shuddered, being torn from my illusion of solitude; my mouth floundered without an answer.

The one I'd bumped in to made himself visible from around the corner as I stared on. It was a muscular, leery-eyed male grunt that approached me, with an air of danger about him. I recognized him as one of a pair of grunts that I'd already defeated. The pokémon center didn't offer services to criminals, and needless to say, that wasn't his motive.

"I- I defeated you already," My voice was hoarse and frightened now, and I crawled to my bag for a pokeball, which had fallen to my side.

In a split second, he kicked the bag from my hand and sent it skidding clear down the hall where it passed a pair of double doors to my left. Another grunt yanked the doors closed behind the bag, and a terrified look to my right proved that another grunt was shutting those doors as well.

Laughing in mockery of my helplessness, he snatched me up off the floor by my shirtfront, tearing the red fabric down to my bra in the process, and held his face inches from my own.

"You're not so tough without your little bodyguards, are ya, bitch?" he spat, twisting my right hand high over my head to keep me from pushing him away.

Snared like a wild pokémon, I released a shrill scream of animalistic panic from the top of my lungs and flailed away from him, my left hand managing to rake him across his face. The offense was responded with a hard blow to the side of my head, slicing my screech in half and sending me tumbling backwards.

Hard floor did not meet up with me, but something much more sinister. The two grunts that had locked the doors on either end of the hall had moved behind me, their fingers digging into my hips and shoulders to hinder my ability to defend myself as I was slugged senseless.

My screams and pleas for help grew weaker and weaker, my vision beginning to glaze over with the beating. I could feel nothing but my body being pummeled as I grew less receptive to the sound of my clothes tearing and the horrible feeling of hands crawling over my body with their violent lust.

_Silver. I'm so sorry._

* * *

_Silver._

…

Everything about this place was ravaged and deathly quiet. Huge black spots crusted with ash were decorating the halls. Probably the work of her Typhlosion. I felt no loneliness or weakness about me despite the fact that I was, in fact, very much alone. Pokémon had come to my life only when I had decided to steal them, and before then it had been me and my vat of street smarts. That held the same for the entirety of Team Rocket, whereas loneness made them terribly, embarrassingly weak.

I was increasingly impressed as I progressed through the hall. I even passed a still-bubbling pool of purple acid from that Nidoran of Lyra's that Feraligatr had grown so fond of.

Still, no sign of Lyra, and I was near the middle of the hallway. Just as the idea of me underestimating her came through my head, a desperate, bloodcurdling scream echoed through the entire hallway, possibly through the entire base. My bones rattled with the ferocity of the sound, incomparable to anything but the roar of the red Gyarados, simultaneously stopping my heart.

I flung myself as fast as I could down to the remaining length of the hall, nearly slamming into the metal doors blocking me off from the sound.

Through the wide glass pane of the door's window, I laid eyes on the hell I'd been trying to prevent.

There she was.

Her eyes were wincing tightly closed amongst the horrible bruises on her face; she stretched her mouth to try to scream again and was battered into the wall by one of the 3 attacking men in response. I heard with a violent shudder my name wheeze from her lips as she bounced off the wall, pupils dilating with the impact.

Soundless horror paralyzed me as the twinkling brown of her eyes was eclipsed by the sinking of her eyelids, and then she herself sank to collapse in a motionless pile on the ground.


	7. Blood and Decadence

**Author's Note: **I don't have tons to say except I LOVE REVIEWS, people! Please help out my popularity and review as often as possible, thank you!

There are references in this chapter from the previous chapters; I hope you can pick them up. I also want you to think about their first tag battle together and their particular chemistry as tag partners.

This chapter has violence, folks! I tried to minimalize the bloodshed but it's arguable whether it was worse that I left it to your imagination. This is easily the most important chapter so far, so please let me know how you feel about how I did it. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

_Silver._

…

A panicky light flickered on in the eyes of the 3 of them as she lay there, motionless as the floor beneath their feet. I dug through my pocket and an object so familiar that it nearly seemed part of my body appeared in my hand, with a glistening and reliable blade gracing it. I didn't give them time to think as the barrier of the doors and the lock closing them disappeared before my rage.

One of their faces scrunched in shock, fear glittering in his eyes. "Hey, y-"

I maneuvered beneath him and gave a smooth upward slash, ignoring his resounding gargle of agony and kicking him back into the wall. Frantic steps pounded the floor behind me as I stepped back from the pooling blood.

There was a rapid gusting of air directly overhead of me as I ducked beneath an impending punch from the 2nd grunt. I blankly heard his gasp of realization as I jammed my knife upward and into the underside of his chin.

Upon retrieving the blade from the dying fool and standing up, I saw the final grunt- the batterer that had knocked Lyra out- was cowering back at me like a mouse before a hawk.

His mouth floundered in the shape of words as I approached casually, as if inviting him to lunch, with his death glittering beside me in my hand.

"Y-you're the boss' kid,"

I was so sick of these miserable shits, and most of all I was sick of always being called "the boss' kid". I paused in my step to laugh, rousing more of his confusion. "I believe my name is Silver,"

That said, I spat in a sinister voice unrecognizable even to myself; "Give me one good reason why you deserve a better fate than your little bastard friends, huh?"

In one desperate movement, his open hand shot out to clasp me around my neck. Shock got the better of me at the moment, and my knife slipped from my fingers to clatter onto the floor. Once I was snared, he applied his other sweat glazed palm and throttled me backwards and onto the ground.

As furiously as I pried at his grip, my fingers were going numb and I was meeting no success as my head grew light and disarray scattered my thoughts. While I struggled, he hunted blindly along the ground with his foot to catch the edge of my knife, kicking it into reach and holding it against my throat.

Instead of continuing the hopeless prying effort, I clenched my right fist and swung with as much power as I could muster in my position, catching him flat in his temple. The impact slung him off of me and onto the floor before he staggered back to his feet to make his escape for the double doors.

A smirk curled my mouth as he fumbled with the lock, only to look over his shoulder and see me dangling his chance at escaping between my fingers. With one hand clenching the key, I rushed forward and stabbed, the end of the long piece of metal digging into the flesh of his back, first only the tip, then an inch, then the entire thing. With a final agonized squeal, he wilted, falling backwards onto the ground. I promptly retrieved my knife from his limply held hand and turned around to face Lyra.

All remnants of my stoicism evacuated from my exhausted body when I needed it most, and I fell to my knees before her wilted form, mourning the loss of the welcoming warmth she held in her eyes when she looked at me. She lay on her side, bruised and cut, coiled around her core in fetal position. I placed a shaking hand on the inward curve of her waist and turned her gently onto her back. The straps of her overalls had been cut and lay like dead strings tossed about her hips, a deep tear in her shirt revealing a sizable portion of her chest, stopping in the middle of her stomach. Her huge white hat, the goofy little emblem I'd always associated with her, sat in rags by her side.

For the first time in my life, I felt the beginning of heat build up behind my eyelids. The last words of her letter burned the back of my mind, the newly discovered significance stabbing me in the stomach.

_Knowing that you came for me as you are would be worse than anything they could do to me._

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about, you idiot," Ferocity rattled my voice as I hissed at her fainted form.

My entire body was being invaded with these wretched emotions, biting at my insides, spinning me around in endless circles. My mind recoiled with shock as my hands found my way around her back and pulled her beaten form up into my arms.

Before I even realized what I'd just done, I felt her rouse in my arms in the form of her shoulders jerking up in the slightest. A small light flickered on inside my chest as she shakily lifted her head up to look me in the eye.

Hoarseness hindered the audibility of her smooth voice. "Silver?"

My heart automatically leapt through several stages of speeds; first an accelerated gallop, and then a slower tempo once I could feel consciousness soak back into her. Disbelief racked my mind with the impossible correlation of it all.

"You didn't listen to me," she spoke in a broken whisper.

A blend of rage and incredulousness tumbled in the back of my throat. I wanted to scream, I wanted to tear my hair out of my skull, I wanted to run. Instead, I planted my hand on the back of her head in our embrace.

"You didn't listen to _me_," I said with astounding calmness.

There was a moment of silence. It pained me to think that anything could deaden her sense of wit and gift for verbal riposte.

Finally, she lifted her head to face me, a level of concern soaking her groggy brown-eyed gaze that made my heart freeze. "You need to get out of here. You're hurt,"

Amazing. She was nearly too tired to speak, let alone move, yet _she_ was trying to tell me what was best for me? She was such a fool. As much as I loathed to admit it, though, she was right. Painful throbbing stabbed at my chest between us, but I refused to set her back down.

"Just relax. Please," I awed as my lips mimicked her own tender words. "Don't worry about it,"

As if by magic, her head sank into my shoulder with a deep sigh. Good. The least she needed was a chance to sleep.

Suddenly, the sound of the doors being shoved open awoke me from the private aura we'd taken on. I reluctantly rested her out onto her back and turned around, my knife braced at my side.

"What the hell is going on in here?" an authoritative tone echoed through the room as a caped human entered. His hair was a pale shade of red, blown upwards. Imperiousness resonated through his presence as his eyes fell upon me. This was Lance. Lance, the champion.

His eyes wandered over the scene in utter disbelief. I myself had hardly noticed the 3 men lying on the ground past the moment they were out of my way. What could I do? I figured the most reasonable thing to do would be to address him. By the time I was on my feet, he'd already seemed to have evaluated both the situation and me.

As we locked eyes, an unexpectedly angry electric current went through my body, the same kind of aura I got from a guy that I knew I would end up fighting with at some point.

The air between us clashed ferociously as he said, "So I assume you're the one who Lyra's been talking about?"

My voice was laden with bitterness. "I don't know. Has she been talking about me to you?"

"An awful lot. In fact, I've been wanting to meet you myself. I've been meaning to have a chat with you,"

Sarcasm dripped through my voice. "Oh, have you?"

My face had taken on a hard mask as he brushed past me and kneeled down beside the beaten girl I stood before. Instantly I could feel the current of the air distort angrily with the feeling of him being between me and Lyra. My teeth gritted over an incoming growl as I watched him hover a hand over her mouth and sigh.

"I have to applaud you on something, Silver," he stood up from his crouch and looked down at me with a steely glare. "I've never met a human quite as manipulative and evil as you,"

I raised an eyebrow. What had Lyra told him?

He continued, disregarding any possibility that I had something to say. "So what did you try first? Seduce her? Tell her you'd never leave her? Tell me, I'm curious,"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"How about your motive? Did you want to take a talented trainer out of the game so you could be the best? Or was it just for the fun of being a manipulative bastard?"

My teeth were grinding together over my growls as he dug into the gist of his approach, encircling me condescendingly. I could only snarl, "I said, _I don't know what you're talking about,"_

"Bullshit," he spat, digging razors into my core with the anger of it. "-Answer me this. How can you leech off of someone's love for you like that?"

"Love?" I felt the word leave my lips like I'd never heard it before. My eyes wrenched down at Lyra where she slept innocently. I had heard of things like love, but where it and I stood was so far below the surface that I'd never brought it up. And here it was, glaring me in the eye. I staggered backward despite myself.

"Let me tell you something," Knifelike edge spiked in his tone. "This never would've happened if it weren't for you. She should have been in the western wing of this place, battling her way through. Something tells me she was trying to protect you, am I right?"

"I-I-" Coherent phrases were lost past their formulation in my head. I was still in complete stupor at the very idea. Lyra loved me? And Lance knew this somehow?

"I brought this very idea up to her earlier. I warned her about allowing someone to drag her down, particularly a leech like you. Lyra has actual potential as a trainer,"

I knew exactly what word was coming as he formulated it, and my feet advanced me forward instinctively with the threat to come.

Lance's eyes narrowed as he labeled me by a name I'd been called time and time again.

"Pathetic,"

Then suddenly, he must've seen something flicker in my eyes, because he was now edging backwards with his hands twitching before him apologetically.

I blew him flat under his chin with force I didn't know I was capable of, a tremendous bang resonating through the room as he was flung into the double doors behind him. Like Lyra had done, he sank down to the ground, effectively knocked out.

A flood of emotion sank from my body as soon as the act was over. I rubbed my knuckles blankly as I walked over to where Lyra was still sleeping. A lighthearted innocence saturated the air around her, so out of place with the events that had just occurred; I slid my arms under her body and slung her up over my shoulder. It was at that second that the exhaustion of everything I'd just done hit me, bearing down onto entire body as I kicked the doors open and carried the both of us out of the base.

The moment I had completely exited the building, a flurry of liquid slapped the top of my head. I hissed with my own bad luck.

It was raining.

I was instantly drenched in the onslaught of raindrops. Illusionary white steam swelled from the ground as I walked toward the back woods surrounding the town.

The only dry place on me was the broad spot where Lyra was strewn over my shoulder, creating a hot, dry pad on my body. It was uncomfortable, the feeling of rain soaking through my hair and clinging to my face.

When I paused to take a breath, a shiver flitted from the back of my neck to the end of my spine; her breathing had taken on a quick, sensual quality that I could hear in perfect definition in my ear. The heat of her tiny, hot breaths dried the raindrops that snaked down my neck. It took a moment for me to teach myself to ignore that before I could regain my composition and continue on.

As lost and exhausted as I felt, I knew exactly the place to go.

* * *

_Lyra._

…

Ugh… ow…

My eyelids wavered reluctantly over my vision, as if preparing me for whatever I was about to see, before finally sliding completely out of my sight to awaken me to a foreign setting.

In the blurriness of my eyesight I could make out what looked like a bedroom surrounding me. I lay on my back in an unfamiliar bed, engulfed in layers of old blankets, one being my own red one. The rich red wood of the bed's frame was weathered and split in entrancing, curved designs that I couldn't help but absently finger as I looked around the room.

This _was_ a bedroom. No electrical lighting hung from the ceiling or table lamp sat on the little side table next to me, but warm gold light swelled off of the walls in flickering patterns. The light was created by a lit beige colored candle sitting on a table on the opposite end of the room. Scattered around the lit flame were empty pokeballs of different variations- Luxury balls, Ultra balls, and the like. My bag sat next to the leg of the table.

Suddenly, the closed door was flung open to smack into the wall to reveal a rain-drenched Silver, his red hair sopping wet and clinging to his face. He walked casually over to the table with a few items from the poke mart in his arms- without the antitheft tags removed- and set them all down, shaking out his hair.

He looked strangely disturbed, with his back arched forward slightly as if under strain and his body dripping with rain. Silence engulfed the room as our eyes met, all besides the heavy slapping of the raindrops against the roof.

He evaluated my condition with a softened version of his usual hard, analytical gaze. "You're awake,"

I smiled faintly. "Yeah,"

As furiously as I tried to remember what had happened to my attackers after I'd passed out and before I'd awoken to Silver's face, only the hazed images of pain answered my prodding. I propped myself up on my shoulders to lean back against the wood of the bed frame. The curiosity was killing me.

Silver focused his expression on me, a devilish smile gracing his lips. "Welcome to my humble abode,"

"Oh," I whispered. Anything louder was painful. "You live here?"

"Only when for whatever reason I can't travel," he'd slid out of his wet black jacket, kicked off his shoes, and taken a seat in the dusty wooden chair sitting before the table, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees. The candlelight flickered off of the pale gray of his eyes enchantingly as he spoke. "-For instance, right now,"

Out of all the time I'd spent with Silver, never had it occurred to me to wonder where he lived, came from, or anything about his past. What a shock it was to learn one detail now, under these odd circumstances. It struck me that this was the first real confrontation we'd had since I'd planned to leave for Mahogany back at the hospital. What could I say…?

"I, um…" it bothered me that he was sitting so far away from me. The desire to have him beside me was so sudden and overwhelming that my voice was failing me. "Why don't you come sit with me for a while? You look cold,"

Redness broke loose over my face as he scrutinized me again, and amazingly, complied. My heart sped up by multiple stages as he stood up from the chair, picked up the corner of the blanket and slid in beside me, flat on his back as opposed to my sitting position.

My voice gained an automatic hushed tone to it as I felt the intense, domestic aura envelop me.

"How are you feeling?" Instinct guided my hands carefully over his chest, clothed in a black t-shirt sans sleeves. Subconsciously I wondered why he was allowing my subtle affection.

He smiled- a rare, genuine subversion to his usual flirtatious smirk. "Tired,"

I could sympathize with that. At least, I had been able to. Just as he'd edged into such close range of me my heartbeat had begun to speed, sucking the moisture from my mouth and lighting up the surface of my skin like an aphrodisiac.

He turned slowly onto his side, forcing me to pause my touch. My hand lingered in the air for mere seconds before he took hold of my wrist in his cool hand and replaced my palm to where it had been. I sighed in the unbelievable comfort that welled in the air.

His low voice was a perfectly moist and defined tickling in my ear as he spoke again, shudders rippling my body at the erotic effect. "I should be asking you that question,"

Ghosts of pain brought a slight throbbing to the bruises on my skin at the memory. I looked away from his eyes for a brief moment. The worst of my injuries was just fear, which had long evaporated.

I smiled sincerely. "I'm fine. It's just a few bruises,"

Now my hand had wandered low enough on his stomach that my pinkie bumped the metal buckle of his belt. Embarrassed, I quickly began the route again from his upper chest.

His lips curled pensively as he debated the best way to bring up the subject that had been lingering in the air since he'd walked in the room. "So I met Lance,"

There was a moment of intense silence. Wordless shock let my lips slip slightly open, before I smacked them closed and looked away from the pained look in his eyes. Lance's advice to retain my distance from Silver burned the back of my head punishingly as I wondered; what _had_ he told Silver?

There was so much to explain- but how could I?

Heat welled up in the back of my throat, choking my voice. "Silver- I, when I was talking to Lance…"

His hands felt softly around the curve of my waist, sliding me down to lay directly beneath him. The heat of our bodies collided beneath the covers, my breath effectively stolen from my lungs with a single glance into the shimmering gray of his eyes, quivering with emotion. His arms caged me from movement as he projected his message in the best way he knew how.

"Lyra," Static jolted my heart at the way he said my name. "Tell me the truth,"

I… It was fluttering on the edge of my lips, swelling in my eyes as I tried to display to him exactly what I meant. Words failed me as I searched his eyes for his true question.

"Do you love me?"

In a split second, I was forced to dig up every fiber of emotion that swam inside of me, from every sentient memory that I had of him. From the moment I'd met him and everything I'd done, said, or thought since then had been performed by an altered person. At last I could identify exactly what wonderful, irresistible force he held me with.

I didn't know or care when or how it had happened, but I'd never loved anyone as much as I loved him.

As my lips parted to answer him, I could taste the salty moisture of my tears touching my tongue. In my shock and stupor, I smiled in the slightest, running my fingers over the rough stitches by his ear and knotting them in the red mass of his hair.

"How did you guess?" I whispered.

The candlelit surfaces of his eyes were glossed with disbelief as he absorbed the sincerity in my voice. "I… I don't believe it…"

His face had been closer to me than I'd realized, because with the slightest descent of his head, his lips had crashed onto my own, eclipsing the dim light of the candle from my eyes. Tremors of pleasure rattled in a sensory path up my spine as his fingers dug hungrily into my hips and buried through the torn layers of my clothing. And then, a hated memory. My breath suddenly caught, and I shivered violently as the darkness behind my eyelids morphed into the images of their faces, grappling and punching me, ripping through my clothes. Silver must have felt me stiffen, as his hands retreated from my body and he hesitantly broke the kiss. I immediately felt starved and mourned the loss of his touch.

"It's okay," he kissed me again, his eyes gazing tenderly back at me. "I'm here,"

I nodded in order to convince myself completely, wiping a fragment of a tear from my cheek as the last of the illusion disappeared to return me to my state of unbridled amazement. So this was love.


	8. Days into Reverie

**Author's Note:** I've had the manuscript for the previous chapter written since before I even started this story! ;D. Oh- in case anybody was a bit confused, no, they did not have sex. Yet. Hahahah! And yes, the mood whiplash between POV's was completely intentional. Remember what Lyra doesn't know…

I'm also happy to hear the positive feedback. Thank you! This chapter is dedicated to those who love lazy days and sweet, sweet love. I would hope that is all of us shippers. :D A filler chapter, but I don't write many of these so I hope you enjoy.

I also have to warn you that **this is a mature chapter, folks**! Not quite enough to rate it up to M, because I don't write it explicitly, but still, I wanted you guys to know.

* * *

Behind my eyelids was a spotless screen of blackness, now of the conscious variety as opposed to that of deep sleep. My shoulders tightened into my body uneasily beneath the texture of a quilted blanket.

"Hm…"

A wakening jolt flashed through my lips as I pursed them. Strange. I touched the surface of my lips, which were warm and tingling with knowing memory. Sweet memories swirled around my mind, curling my mouth into a blissful smile beneath my fingertips.

My entire body shifted in the slightest as I lifted my heavy head, my nose bumping into the source of heat that was dozing away lightly by my side, his arms locking me to his chest in a sleepily held embrace; I coiled closer to the warm vastness of his body to escape the slight chill in the air. In the perfect blackness his lazy breathing sang and tickled my ears, the walls of my mouth dampening with the sound. My first instinct was to reach up and drag my fingers through a loose lock of his hair, but I thought better of it; he was probably more exhausted than I was, after the bomb I'd dropped on him. I sighed, the longing ghost of my passion seeping through the gesture.

I realized, upon looking away from him, that I was just as blind staring into the firm, human expanse of his body as I was looking into the black, cold expanse of the room. Sometime between the moment we'd drifted to sleep and the moment I'd woken up, the candles had flickered out and cast us into pure darkness. Hushing my breaths to near silence, I sat up on the huge bed and turned so that my legs dangled off the side. Instant cold enveloped my just-woken form. It was late summer, but the onset of fall left nights with a deep chill to them.

Not a fraction of stealth was with me as my feet pressed blindly onto the cold floor. As soon as I'd done it, a vile chill snaked from the pads of my feet and up my legs; it would have been worse had I not been wearing my socks- or, more accurately, what was left of them. Though I'd managed to evade thinking about Rocket HQ, the damage done was hanging all over my body with uncomfortable closeness, littering my skin with black and blue marks and searing through my battered clothes. I sighed again, knowing exactly what I needed.

I needed a bath.

As far as I knew, Savvy was in my bag, which had been sitting by the leg of Silver's chair. The trouble now would be _finding_ it.

I started on my hunt with an exhale of frustration. Let's see… the table had to be to the right of the bed, and I had gotten off on the left, because Silver had slid in on the right earlier… But wasn't there a side table-

Bonk.

Yup. There was a side table alright. As I rubbed my sore head where it'd been struck, a flash of awareness lit my mind. Oh, dammit. I silently prayed I hadn't woken him up.

Not even a stir in the blankets or the sleepy inflection of a post-stretch moan accompanied the next sound.

"Hm… I believe we've been here before," His perfectly defined, perfectly awake voice answered my prayers in a way I'd hoped to avoid.

After quickly throwing out the idea to pretend like I wasn't there, I chuckled nervously. "Oh- the Battle Factory?" I uttered a hushed giggle before lowering my voice to a caring whisper. "I'm sorry for waking you. You should go back to sleep,"

"No-" I heard him slip out of the bear hug of blankets and his feet thud onto the floor, in a single movement. "-I've slept long enough,"

I welcomed gratefully the recovery of his body heat as he moved alongside the bed, to the side I had leaned back on, and sat down beside me. Subconscious, impossible levels of contentment allowed me to rest my head on his shoulder. I could sense that my hair was free of its usual pigtails, as it was splayed out over the shoulder I rested on.

My words seemed to sink through and saturate the empty, black room as opposed to the perfectly distinct sound of Silver's low voice directed at me. "You know… I agree with you. It's lonely, being asleep,"

Knowing exactly what I meant, he buried his face into my free-flowing hair. A long, dreamlike moment of silence.

I twiddled my thumbs in my lap. "-Say, I just realized something,"

"That is?"

"I've never been in any room in the house but this one awake,"

As if by telepathy, an intuitive flash seemed to go off in Silver's head, and soon he was on his feet again, leaving me dry mouthed and cold.

I lurched forward, slightly, before I regained my posture. "Silver-"

The sound of creaking wood replied to me; a slight flickering of light, coming from some unseen source in the room that this one led to, cast a sultry glow off of his metallic gray irises and the mahogany the light had dyed his hair. He threw me an enticing smirk and departed the room, leaving the door held slightly ajar behind him. My feet stumbled forward, thoughtless with the method in which I'd been lured, and I caught the door in my left hand while groping forward unseeingly with my right.

The second I had moved into the light, I was snatched off of my feet, being carried beneath my knees and the length of my back. Before I could send a breath into my lungs, his lips had moved rapidly from the hollow of my throat to my mouth. I found myself being dropped backfirst onto a soft, cushioned surface, him directly on top of me, as the arm that had held me beneath my legs moved to snake up my shirt and coil around my back.

I was so startled, so incredulous, that I didn't even care that my mind was morphing into a red hot pit of desire- that my skin was lighting with heat- that legs were coiling around his waist, dragging him closer still.

Hands- _my_ hands- felt their way around the worn black leather of his belt, my fingers finally striking the cold silver buckle. With one hand working away at the clasp and the other knotting in the thick red mane of his hair, I instinctively arched my spine so that he was closer to me still, engulfing me.

He gladly obliged, his own lust forcing him through the few remaining layers of my clothing with my silent gesture of approval. His mouth left my lips, hunting along my collarbone and pressing me back farther. And then I remembered something.

I _did_ want a bath…

It could wait. It had to wait, just a half hour. Or an hour. Or forever…

The moral guardians were screaming at me. Somehow I managed to resist the power of seduction, and I recoiled away from his kiss as his lips returned to mine with a passionate vengeance. A flood of electric static washed through my body as I tried to speak without the words garbling.

"S-Silv-" his frantic kiss interrupted my sentence, and so I tried again.

"S-S-" Argh. The quivering wasn't helping my case. I was actually hoping I would fail in my resistance, if only for more of this. Finally, I planted my hands on his face and pushed. It came out much more aggressive than I'd hoped, probably because I wasn't able to muster enough sense to control my power.

"Silver," I gasped for air, softening the expression in my eye. "I was hoping to take a bath- if that's okay with you,"

The corner of his mouth twitched in something of an apologetic 'Oops-got-carried-away' smile. In his eyes, however, was something else entirely. The edges of his irises burned with carnal hunger, as if he'd been snatched right out of an animalistic state, and with the messy, thick red hair strewn across his face and his eyes scorching like they were, he did seem more like a beast than anything. That said, I probably looked the same; my heart only now had begun to slow to a distorted rhythm instead of the rapid hum it had been.

Silver had crawled off of me so that I could absorb the remainder of the dimly lit background. I was lying on my back on a low lying-dark green couch, the material matte, like suede or twill. The room was like a tiny house in itself, with books and Pokémon supplies scattered over a desk on the right side of the room, and on the left, two doors, one of which led to the bedroom. The light swelled from a bulb shaped oil lamp sitting on the aforementioned desk, where it cast its honey-colored glow over the clutter and the mahogany accents in the wood floor. Across from the couch I was sitting on was the soot-stained brick of a fireplace, possibly the only source of heat in the place.

Upon sitting up, I realized that whatever thread that held my shirt together had snapped, and it lay in rags on the floor, my bra amongst it. Wait, that meant… I dared myself to look down.

Possibly the most intense fits of blushing I'd ever had broke lose over my face, and I thanked god that I had brought a night shirt along with me. Silver responded to my modesty reflex with a low chuckle as I covered myself with the rags of my shirt and scuttled for the open bedroom door.

"What are you so worried about? I was seconds away from seeing the whole thing anyway,"

Ugh. It was true. I stuck out my tongue childishly and leaned back on the wall beside the door frame. "You cheated," I mumbled.

"So did you," I couldn't read what he was implying as he smirked and flopped back onto his couch. I frowned suspiciously as his eyes took a brief trip from my neck, downwards.

I growled at him upon realizing what he had his attention divided on and stomped back into the bedroom, feeling close to the ground for my bag. The faint light of the oil lamp in the other room proved to be of little use, the lack of visibility only getting worse when a shadow moved to eclipse the doorway.

I ignored him, feeling the leg of the chair with one arm while covering my chest with the other.

"So were you making any plans to finish off the Johto gyms?"

At last, my hands found the familiar texture of my bag, and I snatched it up without completely hearing his question. "Oh. Of course…"

I couldn't tell whether or not I was lying. Any world outside of this small, domestic one had erased itself from my mind. Leaving seemed... unthinkable. Silver sensed the slight state of thoughtlessness I'd taken on and redirected the conversation once I had my bag slung around my shoulder.

"Come on- I'll show you the bathroom,"

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

There was a quaint charm to the room he brought me to; the walls made of worn wood paneling and the tile a deep shade of gray. On one side sat a spotless porcelain tub, and on the other a mirror. I marveled. It looked like a bathroom.

"No plumbing- I usually use Feraligatr for that, but since he's back at the hospital... er, you have a Water-type, right?"

"Yup," I pulled out Savvy and Sorrel's pokeballs and released them. Their mass quite literally consumed the remaining space in the room. "Savvy- would you fill that up for me, please? And once she's done, hit it with a little bit of fire, Sorrel,"

At first the two seemed bewildered by the scene, but Savvy appeared to sort it out in a matter of seconds and began the process of spurting water into the empty bathtub. As soon as they were done I returned my pokémon to their balls and ushered Silver out the door, giggling at his unspoken protests.

At last I was alone. It was a bittersweet sort of thing, isolated for the first time in days. Everything had been about me and other people, me and Silver, Silver and other people. Now it was just me.

I slid my shorts off first- not difficult considering the sliced straps and their looseness on my hips, leaving them strewn on the floor, then my socks and underwear.

Steam curled and rolled from the water and through the room, glazing my skin as I touched my toe to the surface for a temperature check. Perfect. A leisurely sigh tumbled from my lips as I sank into the hot water and leaned back against the wall behind the tub. Along with the idleness of bathing came the opportunity to organize my thoughts. Then again, I didn't want them organized. I had fallen in love with the spontaneity and solitude of this place, suspended in the middle of heaven as it was.

I splashed some water onto my hair, working through the knots with my fingers. In the midst of this, my arm happened to pass across my line of vision, earning my grimace. Black and blue splotches, some the size of my hand, were scattered in generous numbers over my skin, the soreness still lingering in the darkest of them. Fortunately, they were lighter and fainter than they had been earlier. Cuts of deep and shallow varieties accompanied them, along with the notable one from the Gyarados' attack that was now revealed by my removing the bandage; it had already closed up into a dull red line. I beamed inwardly at the development. Rest had done me good, even though I did look like a mangled doll.

I released another lazy sigh as I looked at the damage on my body. It still confused me… what about me, in this state, could Silver find so wildly sexy? I reached over the side of the tub, pulled a hand mirror out of my bag, and held it before my face.

I looked like… me. Me, in the form of a mangled doll. I was glad to see that the worst of my injuries were on the remainder of my body; my face had escaped with a few thin scratches here and there, but that was the most of it. I had nearly forgotten what my hair looked like down- it had always had a slight wave to it, and the chestnut strands curled around my shoulders, the tips barely floating on the surface of the water when I sat straight up. Not only was it thick, but it had grown longer. I took hold of the comb I'd set out and began working through it again, humming out the tune of a favorite song of mine.

Before long, the water cooled to a lukewarm temperature, the last of the steam clinging to the mirror. With a last splash of the water onto my face, I flicked on the drain and stepped out of the bath, dripping water onto the floor.

The air was still thick and hot around me, water whirring noisily down the drain, as I snatched a towel off the rack and dried my body. I proceeded in my usual post-bathing modus operandi, hunting through my bag for my night shirt and spare pair of socks. Once I'd applied a liberal amount of faintly fragranced lotion to my ravaged skin, I slid the shirt over my head. It was a favorite among my PJ's- deep cherry red cotton, with the hem resting comfortably at the middle of my thigh and a short slit going up either side. It was in the style of a scoop neck henley; complete with heart shaped buttons and striped details on the cuffs of the ¾ length sleeves. I usually reserved it for cool nights, something Johto had been lacking lately. How long had it been since I'd worn this? A year, maybe. I pulled on the over-the-knee white socks, identical to the ones I usually wore, and crammed the remainder of my belongings back into my bag. My next reflex was to pull my hair into pigtails, but after a moment of thought, lowered my hand to my side- Silver seemed to like it down.

I inhaled a lungful of steamy air and pushed open the door. The steam that had been trapped behind the bathroom door now tumbled out around me and into the shocking, cool temperature of the room. Immediately, the heat glazing my skin evaporated, leaving the stark contrast of heat and cool to linger on my skin. A slight shudder rippled my body as I dropped my bag beside the couch and sunk into the thick couch cushions.

Silver was… somewhere. Another shudder, born of different reasons than the temperature change, rattled me as I realized that he could catch me by surprise at any moment. Then, a rustling sounded from across the room. My gaze snapped to my right at the light bang of a lightweight door shutting, and Silver turned away from a closet beside the bathroom to lay his eyes on me.

Impending mischief flashed in his metal eyes as he met my gaze, deep red flush spreading over my cheeks.

"Hi there," he said, a lecherous inflection surrounding the words. I blushed harder as he scrutinized me readjusting myself on the couch, so that I was sitting on my calves, leaning against the cushion behind me.

"H-hi," I whispered, feeling the texture of the couch (definitely suede, by the way) as if in idle thought.

I was far from bored. This was like standing on a string suspended over a hot vat of exhilaration. Should I jump in now? Or wait to get pushed in?

A sudden feeling of ravenousness washed through me; I shifted my weight and beckoned to him to come over.

What he did, however, was that and more. My hands lifted up reflexively to protect my face as he leapt on me, swatting my arms out of the way and moving his lips onto mine in the same motion. I had to grip onto the cushion I was sprawled out on in order to keep from hyperventilating; my own lack of prowess in this department made everything much more astonishing. I didn't know what I was doing, thinking, or where this was going. I just knew I wanted more.

He leaned down so his lips grazed my ear, and in a voice that verbalized my own desire toward him, whispered, "And you said _I_ cheated,"

My voice broke into a distorted gasp at the striking contrast of his cool, dry body through the thin fabric of my night shirt. At this point I'd learned to take a bit of control over my reactions. I broke the kiss, curling the corner of my lips into an innocent smile and let my hands crawl up his arms and over his shoulders.

"So I've been thinking about something," I mused, liking the conclusion he jumped to. I could see it in his eyes. "-About finishing what I started,"

He cocked his eyebrow as I retrieved my hands from his body, the fingers of my left hand moving to tap my collarbone with the same simple innocence as before. Sensing him stiffen with the gesture, I crossed my other arm over my chest protectively and allowed my gaze to slink submissively away from him to stare into the back of the couch.

I couldn't help but giggle deviously as he dove down to kiss me; prepared this time, I slid my head out of the way, poising my lips right next to his ear as he'd done to me.

"I was talking about becoming the Champion, silly,"

The look of astonishment on his face as I said it was priceless. I gave a hearty laugh and kissed the confused redhead, knotting my fingers into his hair affectionately.

I rattled out my explanation to him. "I plan on finishing up all of the gyms and challenging the League by the end of the year. We could meet here at the end of every day, you know, so travelling and training won't get in the way,"

He showed his approval by sliding his hands down the length of my thighs and pressing his lips back onto mine, the hunger of the earlier events soaking through the kiss. My eyelids slid closed, welcoming his advances.

"But until then," he licked his lips, the same carnal scorch outlining the edges of his eyes, "No more excuses,"


	9. An Extension of Paradise

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the feedback so far. I felt like I had to explain the confusing style of writing in chapter 8.

The scattered and confused nature of the chapter in anything other than waking up and Lyra's bath was intentional- I was trying to illustrate her own confusion directly- but not to the extent that my readers got confused (or the laws of physics- LOL!).

the anonymous reviewer: Thank you for taking the time to give me specific things to fix, even if you didn't sign in so I could thank you via PM. I appreciate it! I made several edits to the chapter to make it less confusing (changing the location of the 1st scene, elaborating, etc.). And to answer the comment about Silver's injuries, I determined whether this chapter's events would exist based on the response to what Silver pulled in Rocket HQ. Since I didn't get any comments about it, I figured this chapter would be okay, and I would bring it back up later in Silver's POV.

For continuity purposes, I rewrote this chapter to address his injuries (or just make a nod at it; you may feel otherwise). Oh- and about Lyra's bag- he _did_ get it in chpt. 7, I just didn't write in that part directly.

Also, so sorry for the moderate lateness. This would have been out by February 3 if it weren't for some web access issues I was having. Slight filler- but I promise that biding some time away was necessary, and I thought it might be a nice change of pace to adapt Silver and Lyra's relationship now that the latter has made her confession. Enjoy!

* * *

I groaned with the lazy strain of moving between sleep and consciousness, blinking my eyelids open. The living room of Silver's house surrounded me in hazy definition, the flickering of an orange flame lighting the fireplace and warming my face. With the twitch of my shoulders, I realized there was a lightweight blanket tossed over my body.

Definition began to develop along the borders of the scenery and expand the capacity of my ears, allowing me to hear the light crackling of the fire. Releasing a final yawn, I slid back and propped myself up on my shoulders.

A strange loneliness enveloped the air in the room, yet not a thing seemed disturbed; the same golden luster glowed off the mahogany floor and white countertop, the peaceful scent of the firewood in the mantle unaltered from when I'd last smelled it. What was wrong?

Curious, I began to pull the blanket from my body, stopping once I felt the swelling heat of the fire on my completely bare skin. Every article of my clothes lay strewn on the floor. I knelt down to grab my nightshirt, slipping the thin cotton over my head and pulling back on my socks and underwear. Silver's clothes, and presence, were nowhere to be found.

I sauntered over to the countertop and examined the long line of containers and bottles sitting atop it. Mostly medicine for pokémon, hyper potion, revives, a few full heals. Matches, a bucket of herbal roots, a 6 pack of water bottles with two missing, a pad of paper and pen, the paper covered with an angry, scrawled style of handwriting that I refrained from snooping through. One bottle- white, with a human pharmacy label- was uncapped and closer to the edge of the countertop than the others and sitting beside a half-empty bottle of water beside it. I picked up the container and read the label, a lump of shame immediately rising into my throat. Maximum strength painkillers.

I dunked my face into my hands in a fit of shame. He still belonged in the hospital. What the hell was I thinking, allowing myself to get carried away like that? He never allowed himself any rest, and here I was having sex with him in the middle of nowhere…

My search for him brought me into the bedroom while I was still beside myself with my own stupidity. Not a soul stirred inside the bedroom, the bed still unmade, the image of disarray, amiss with blankets and pillows. Beside the table sat my red shoes and the tattered remains of my hat. I grabbed them and returned to the living room, collecting my bag from beside the couch and checking it over for a supply check. I had one hand on the brass doorknob, having fashioned my nightshirt into a sort of dress with one of Silver's black belts and pulled my hair back into pigtails.

So I was leaving. Not entirely just to look for Silver, but also to return to my favorite spot, Cliff Cave, to train. My next gym battle was Jasmine, and if the rumors were true, she was far from a pushover. I wasn't used to working with defensive types, but I had Sorrel for firepower.

In a brief fit of fancy, the scream of a thousand fans burst to life in my eardrums, the pulsations of battle seeping through the ground and into my body, a passionate Eruption exploding from Sorrel's back in a blinding death path for my opponent on my command. Fame, victory. More than victory- I wanted to be invincible. Those dreams, the ones I'd dropped aside when I met Silver, still sang in the depths of my heart. I couldn't leave them behind.

Just as I began to turn the knob, a sheet of white amongst the dark wood of the door caught my eye. I caught the note between my fingers and held it up for me to see:

…

_So you're awake. Good._

_I was feeling a bit uneasy about not having my pokémon with me, so I decided to stop by the hospital to sneak them all out. I borrowed one of your team in case somebody bothered me. While I'm gone, feel free to wander around the area a bit. This place is situated a mile or so off Mahogany's limits, roughly parallel to the Lake of Rage. It used to belong to a fisherman, who abandoned it once he moved to Sinnoh. _

…_Anyway, I'm on foot, so I'll be back by nighttime. If you leave and there's anything you want me to know if I get back before you, there's a pad of paper on the counter. Remember to put out the fire. See you tonight. _

Closing his note properly gave him some obvious issues. First he had written "Bye", and then crossed it out. Beneath it, he had written "Yours Truly", and then scribbled that out as well. Finally, below the failed attempts, his final closing was printed without a trace of the messy scrabble the rest of the note was written in:

…_I love you._

_-Silver _

…

A steady, warm swelling illuminated my heartbeat in my chest, recognizing of a love that was no longer impossible to believe.

I clutched the note to my heart. "I believe you,"

Still in an unfaltering state of smiling, I placed the paper into my bag and moved to the countertop, scrolling out words onto the next blank sheet of paper.

_Good evening, or afternoon, depending on when you get in:_

_If I'm not here, it's because I'm at Cliff Cave training. It's the route between Cianwood City and the Safari Zone, R-J047 on a national map. The beach below the cliffs is amazing at sunset, but I've never seen it at night, which I was planning to do tonight. I'd love for you to be here with me. If you hear someone singing cheesy love songs into the moon like a lunatic, you know it's me! When you get your pokémon, fly on over and meet me. And surf, please don't climb any ladders. I saw the painkillers open on the counter. _

_See you tonight._

…_and I love you, too._

_-Lyra_

…

As he'd mentioned, a canister of water sat beside the fireplace which I used to douse the flames. Tearing the paper from the pad and leaving it in plain view on the countertop, I opened the door and allowed myself outside into the earthy aroma of the rain-dampened woods around me. The fresh air, reintroducing me to the realness and freshness of the world, enveloped my body and rippled the hem of my clothes in greeting.

An elated laugh hailing from deep in my heart rang out into the canopy of leaves and sunlight overhead. I blinked my eyes open wide and checked my Pokegear for the time, the first time I'd done so in days; 1:48 PM. Time to get out of here.

* * *

Deep evening was draped over the landscape around the craggy red rock of the Cliffs, casting a lazy shadow off the small peeks of beach below and leaving fond warmth to grace the breeze around me. I gazed off into the tangerines and citrons of the sunset beyond, sinking over the calm ocean.

It turns out that Silver had taken _Annie_ with him; I burst out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter once I thought of his reaction when he realized he'd grabbed a little Nidoran as his getaway pokémon. I doubted he'd have to use her, though, with his knife and refusal to submit to injury on his side.

He was something, all right.

Sorrel and Savvy were sparring around me, practicing their precision with powerful moves by having to aim around me. I didn't flinch as Savvy leapt, teeth bared and glistening with ice, over my head. Sorrel responded by charging her fist with energy, shadows dying her blood red irises a passionate maroon.

I stepped back to observe their progress, reminding them to utilize their Special attacks; moves like Flamethrower and Brine. Upon order, Sorrel's flamethrower lit the dusky crag of the cliff we trained on, the shape of the embers flickering off the wall behind me. I wasn't worried, though; Savvy was much too fast to allow herself to be hit.

In a heartbeat, the Water-type came barreling beneath the attack, glowing with water, to collide with Sorrel's unprotected stomach. She was forced backwards, choking off the attack, but remained standing. Savvy skidded backwards with a satisfied aura about her.

As I pulled out my pokeballs to grant my girls a good rest, white aura enveloped Savvy's body, of the same grade as that of an evolution. Sorrel's Flamethrower caught in her throat, backing away from her sparring mate as she grew to the size of a small car, lean and torpedo-like before our eyes.

"Sharpedo?" I whispered expectantly as Savvy's glow retreated from her body, leaving behind the rough-skinned, menacing form of a Sharpedo. Then something struck me about her new appearance. "I guess it's time to finally extend your name,"

Intense eagerness swept over her toothy expression as she nodded; a long-awaited promise I'd made to her was about to be fulfilled. Time for drama!

"Savvy, I hereby lengthen your cherished pre-evolved nickname to…" The Water/Dark-type with the ironic Docile nature practically squirmed with the anticipation as I patted a hand on her head. "-Savage,"

Soon, though, I had to recoil my palm from her coarse hide. Rough Skin, her ability, was even more potent now that she was a Sharpedo. Off to the side, Sorrel clenched her hands together in an admiring, saint-like pose at her friends evolution. Now if I could only get Annie to evolve.

"Well done, girls," I reabsorbed the panting pokémon back into their pokeball, tossing out Floater's ball. The shiny Fearow came bursting out of his ball, twirling through the air like the show-off he was. He was broad-winged, his golden-yellow feathers an even more lustrous shade by grace of the sunset.

I climbed onto his back, directing him downwards. I soaked in a taste of the early summer evening as Floater made an easy descent down the cliffs.

He swooped down so low that my toes grazed the sandy shore of the beach, and we skimmed over the ocean, covered beneath the momentary shade of the bridges overhead. The scent of the ocean ran through my hair and drew an elated smile to my face as he ascended again, moving up the side of the cliffs and climbing into the sky over the entirety of Route 47.

When we finally landed, the sky had darkened again, now showing the signs of late evening. I stepped off his back and onto the sandy beach. My toes longed to sink into the texture of the sand; I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks, standing before the edge of the water. There was a quick whir of light behind me as Floater poked the release of his pokeball and admitted himself back inside. I was too far lost in stupor to notice. The sea had become a deep, flowing vat of grayish blue, snaking between the cliffs and crashing down in waterfalls. There was a reason why I loved training here.

My body sank backwards to lie back on the beach, my eyes staring into the vast sky over my head. The outline of the moon had just begun to show in the sky. Next thing I knew, my eyelids had sank over my vision, carrying me to the land of dreams.

* * *

_Silver._

…

Being in public was probably a bad idea. Existing was a bad idea, in fact. How many ways could I tell her that I was not only a murderer- and that was only most recently- but also a thief, and my sanity was slowly slipping away from me? It wasn't that I was intentionally keeping secrets from her, but more that there was no way to phrase madness. In fact, if I was seen with her by any form of law, she could be named an accomplice. I knew she would never leave me, and _he_ knew it too. He would exploit that.

Until I came up with a solution, I had a few things to do. 1, stay the hell out of public places. That meant I wouldn't be able to watch Lyra battle, or go much of anywhere with her. That would be the worst hurt of it, but bearable. 2, I would have to heal a little faster. This was taking too long for me to bear, and I didn't know the next time I would run into Lance, or lose control of my stupid hormones.

With that memory, I couldn't suppress a chuckle. An exalted sort of sensation bound itself around my brooding mind as I remembered the new ways I had seen, with my lust-stained vision, the innocence in her eyes when I touched her. It had been second nature with the mountains of desire I'd had so much time to build up. I stared off into the orange spread of the late evening's sky as prior memories inevitably resurfaced.

Rage collided in my body. I remembered with a shudder of disdain the bad aura that singed the air around him. It was like he leaked trouble from his pores. The fact that he'd moved between me and the peaceful retreat that Lyra embodied set off some sort of furious reaction inside me like the falling of a tree where no one can hear it. He wasn't gone. No. He'd never be. But at least he was for now.

* * *

Lyra.

…

When I finally woke up, the last traces of warmth had seeped from the air, replaced with a void of crisp, breezeless nothingness. It was a drowning sensation, yet also a feeling of immense replenishment, like healing electricity. Above my head was the entirety of the universe, littered with stars. The moon glowed full and low over the water and colored the casual ripples in the water a pale, lunar shine. The time on my Pokegear read 11:02 PM.

"Hm…" I uttered a sigh and sat up straight, flexing my bare toes in the tide. The temperature was completely even, as if it had locked in some of the day's warmth to suffice throughout the night.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of something splitting smoothly through the waves, a pokémon being absorbed into its ball, and then a pair of shoes sloshing through the sand to sit down beside me.

I didn't even need to look, but I did anyway. His eyes were half concealed beneath his low eyelids, not out of tiredness but in contentment. The silver glow of his eyes was the image of incandescence in the glow of the moonlight, instantly stealing the oxygen from my lungs.

Entranced, I stretched my neck in the slightest to kiss his waiting lips with a force that shocked the both of us wordless. He tumbled backwards and into the sand, gripping me around my lower back so that our hips ground together in the midst of my burst of passion. Within a few minutes, much too short for me, he broke the kiss to read the mindless screen of my eyes, pushing a stray strand of my forelocks from my face.

Not a trace of the defensive nature he'd developed for his own survival remained in his gaze. Those beautiful, ghostly silver eyes of his glowed in the embrace of the moon, flowing deep like the ocean and drowning my soul away. My body was like a metal shell devoid of consciousness of anything but his form so close to mine. It was like the feeling of his lonely aura, intensified to levels beyond understanding. If only there was some way to show him that I would give him anything, in return for nothing but his trust. And then I smiled, because somehow I could tell that he already knew.

At last, I could feel my voice return in the form of a whisper. "So what do you think of my training spot?"

He sat up and gazed over the waves as I hesitantly clambered off of him. "What nights it gives you…"

"Hm," My voice vibrated in my throat and trailed out over the surface of the water, rising into an inhalation as I breathed in the strange electricity coursing through the air. "-do you feel that sensation?"

He rested my palm in his and played idly with my fingers while thinking. "I've never been good at describing things, but it feels kind of like this,"

He suddenly pushed me over onto my back, pinning me beneath him and focusing the phantom glow in his eyes on me. At first I felt nothing, but then, it hit me, and any word I could use to describe it became an understatement. Everything and anything within range, within existence, even- turned a mystifying shade of silver emotion that drenched my skin and bones with overwhelming power. Like a drain, the illusion soaked me in and hollowed my body into the nothing of the night's raw air. Whether I had melded into him or he had melded into me, I couldn't tell. There was a long moment of complete, blissful physical empathy, before he felt he had stunned me long enough. Ravenous hunger and dazed disbelief toyed at my heartstrings as he moved away from me again, allowing me to sit up. I didn't.

My voice came out weak with the lingering effects of my shock as I found myself staring not into his eyes, but the starry black expanse of the upper universe. There were so many things I wanted to say, but instead I panted out our little inside joke. "You… cheater…"

Remembering, he allowed a gentle rumble of laughter to avoid pressuring his ribcage. "Did it work? I was just trying to imitate what you keep doing to me,"

Words like _impossible, other worldly, _and _that can't be true _played on the tip of my tongue, right at the edge of my lips, yet none of them came_. _As I tried to sit up, my body lurched to the side still locked in a daze. Silver extended his arm to catch my shoulder as I lowered myself back into the sand. He plopped back beside me. An overwhelming surge of contentment sank into my skin like oxygen as we rested there, basking in each other's loving auras. Subconscious urge pushed me to bury my face into his shoulder, a gesture to which he responded by drawing his hand down my spine affectionately.

He whispered into my ear, beginning to get up and grabbing a pokeball off his belt. A black Luxury Ball holding the scarlet monstrosity. "We should go home,"

I nodded, clambering to my feet. "Of course,"

I approached the now docile beast that waited in the water, taking a seat on his long ruby back behind Silver. Suddenly, I succumbed to a lighthearted, spirited laugh that carried off over the seething black ocean, into the endlessness of the sky. The stoic redhead turned back to give me a quizzical look, to which I explained my feelings of contentment in the simplest way possible:

"We _are_ home,"


	10. Two Types of Steel

**Author's Note: **Yeah! My first 10th chapter. I write short stories, 9 chapters in average, so this is new for me. So…

Back to the plot folks. :D I think I made a considerable timeskip right there for other simultaneously occurring events to have made way. Back to business also means back to battles. You will see a full, 6-on-6 here between Lyra and Jasmine.

Oh! And any fans of the Maximum Ride series, I just published a previously unannounced fic for it (EllaxIggy). It was a secret project of mine that I was working on alongside this chapter. Link's on my profile. Sorry if it made me slightly late!

* * *

_Lyra. _

…

After a lengthy morning at Silver's involving digging through phonebooks to find the gym's number and schedule, here I stood, Olivine's sea breeze enveloping me from where I stood in the streets before the Steel-type gym. At my side, my fists clenched. Time to remind myself who I was. This was what I was made for.

…

Metal, metal everywhere. Its cold, unwelcoming face surrounded me on all sides as I made a steady descent down a long line of stairs, into an arena of sand. I'd scheduled my battle for this very time slot, down to the minute. Suddenly a sound blasted over the intercom above my head, nearly sending me an inch off the ground with shock.

"Today's challenger has arrived on her corresponding spot on the field. Leader Jasmine, arriving,"

An attendant raced across the field, skidding to a stop before me. When in range, I could make out the look of sheer excitement widening his features as he shook my hand.

"Just on time! You wouldn't' believe the audience waiting for this battle, Lyra,"

I smiled, pleasantly surprised. Was I getting that famous? "There's an audience?"

He transitioned into making one-sided conversation with me to dialing numbers into a device in his hand; a model of gym-grade Pokegear. Before I could ask what he was doing, the opposing side of the field lit up.

Fighting heat emanated from my team and into my skin, throughout the field, over the gathering audience around us. At first I assumed there would be only a few lingering spectators; it took less than five minutes and floods of people later for me to be proven otherwise.

Deep shivers erupted from my core as the numbers increased. I'd _never_ had stage fright, nor could I ever understand how anybody wouldn't want to be hailed before others. I guess being around Silver helped me understand the positives of obscurity, while also the way you adapted to it with time. The last time I'd been around so many people was at the Battle Frontier, which felt like ages ago.

Coiling my nerves into a ball and abandoning them at my heels, I watched Jasmine approach her position opposite me. With the dirt expanse of the field between us, it seemed like a mile-long battle was ahead. She had bright light brown hair grown to the middle of her back, and a gaze marginally less brown then my reddish-brown one.

By now, I'd trained myself against the loud and sudden blare of the speakers, and thus didn't flinch as it burst over the arena again.

"Ladies and Gentleman, on the Leader side, we have Johto's legendary iron-clad defense girl, Leader Jasmine, now arriving! On the challenger's side, we have the newest New Bark Town legend with an undefeated record, Lyra!"

I raised a hand to welcome the crowd as they addressed me with adoration, hooting so loud that I was surprised that the roof didn't blow off. People were even yelling out the names of my _pokémon_, begging me to use certain ones against certain ones of Jasmine. I'd picked up my full team from the PC just for this battle. It was time to get this going.

"Ladies, whenever you're ready," The announcer set the cue.

First up… "Jupiter!" I slung out the pokeball of a male Gabite, a gift to me from a friend in Sinnoh. Clouds of dirt slung into the air around his feet as he made his heavy landing. I matched his hard expression as Jasmine evaluated my choice, toggling a ball of her own.

"A Sinnoh Pokémon? I guess I'll have to bring out my own," With a flick of her wrist, she had tossed a black and gold pokeball into the air. I heard the roar of a Steel/Rock beast before I saw it, and onto the field stepped the plated shield face of a Bastiodon, looking more rugged and unbreakable than anything I'd ever seen before.

I breathed its name in surprise. A Bastiodon. As much as I wanted to have my pokedex take a scan of it, there was no time to waste.

"Jupiter, stay perfectly still! Prepare Earth Power!" I kept my eyes glued on Bastiodon as Jasmine gave it its command.

She looked bewildered for a moment, but leapt once she realized my tactic. "Focus Energy, then Metal Burst!"

Bastiodon's steel hide glittered with the vigor of Focus Energy for less than a split second before gray metal erupted through the air, twice as fast. I gulped down my shock as the shards of steel shot out at Saturn. He was quick, though, and despite the fact that he was still charging his Earth Power, a nimble leap off his feet and spiral out of the way was enough to evade the blast. The shards of metal flew into the wall behind me with such force that it would've taken my head off had I not ducked.

Intensity spiked my voice into a shout. "Now!"

My Gabite landed back on the ground in a handstand, crashing his claws into the earth and roaring with enough vitality to silence the gasps in the crowd around us. There was a violent shuddering in the earth between him and Bastiodon, and suddenly, bursts of flaming earth came barreling towards it, catching the beast flat under its slow body.

Satisfaction welled into my body as angry volcanic power enveloped Jasmine's pokémon, but there was no time to waste. Metal burst would be increased in power now.

"Now up in the air! Brick Break!"

Gabite bounded off his feet and into the air, his glowing clawed fist becoming an indigo blur as he spun.

Jasmine was far from done, though. Bastiodon shook off the last of the attack as Gabite dropped to land a head-on attack.

"Iron Defense!"

The pokémon coated itself in a steel veil as Gabite came down to strike, Brick Break merely bouncing off the Pokémon's hide. I was winded at Bastiodon's impossible hardiness as Gabite backed away, the foe still glistening with metal as if it hadn't been touched.

"Surprised?" Jasmine was getting her gist now, I could feel it. "Now Metal Burst and Earthquake, simultaneously!"

It took years to master simultaneous attacks, and was just as hard for a trainer to teach as a pokémon to learn. I had only just learned to do it myself. But I was one step ahead. "Hold up your arms and get on the ground, Jupiter!"

My bewildered pokémon made a small whine of confusion, but did as he was told. The Dragon type lay on the ground and held his finned arms up, claws open, as the shards of metal flew over his head. The ground had just began to shudder with seismic power as I gave him the next order.

"Now catch them!"

Before I'd done so much as finished the sentence, two blades of steel, steaming with the speed they'd been launched at, were in Gabite's hands. Pure astonishment swept over the crowd as they scanned my face, then Jasmine's. My fans leapt with pride as they realized that this was close to over.

I inclined myself forward, pointing straight at Bastiodon's broad face. "Dragon Rush with them!"

Glowing indigo like a torpedo, he launched himself from a laying position to crash into the face of his foe, driving one metal shard into its head between the rungs of his face armor. The injured pokémon belted a deep, ragged roar of agony as Gabite leapt on its back and drove in the second shard.

The roars grew weaker and weaker, its balance faltering, until finally the metal tank flopped onto its side and threw dust into the air around it. There was a long moment of silence as the ref came to evaluate its status.

After a moment, he waved a flag into the air. "Bastidon is unable to battle. Lyra's Gabite wins this round!"

The cheers rose like an impending tsunami, a sound that I could live to forever. Jasmine looked somber as she returned her fainted pokémon to its pokeball and pulled out the next. The referee backed away from the field as we both switched.

"You are amazing. Thank you," I murmured to Jupiter's pokeball as I reached for my next partner. "Your turn, Phantom!"

From the pokeball I tossed burst the dark gray form of a Dusknoir, hovering above the field. Nobody knew this pokémon of mine; he was a new obtainment, with the most versatile moveset of my entire team. Nobody would expect someone as girly as me would own a Dusknoir. I stood tall as Jasmine released her next pokémon.

"Steelix, come on out!" Out of her next pokeball came a monstrously long, steel plated pokémon. It's eyes glistened with fighting passion as its battle cry bounced off the walls of the arena. I'd dealt with many Steelix before in Cliff Cave and the Battle Factory, but this was her signature pokémon, her trump card. I was surprised that she would pull it out so early. Snakes of ice slithered down my spine as I pondered; this could mean trouble.

No time to waste. "Fire Punch, Phantom!"

She moved so quickly that her apparition's form seemed to wick from the air as she launched a fist of flames at the waiting Steeilx.

"Dig out of range!"

I found myself stricken with amazement as this huge beast leapt into the air and buried itself under the ground in one movement. I could feel the rattling beneath my feet as the pokémon burrowed. She didn't have Levitate, so Dig would be damaging. What to do…?

"Earthquake!"

Phantom pressed her palms into the dirt ground of the arena, pulsing tremors of energy through the earth, throwing human-sized rocks around like they were pebbles. There was nothing better than a move amplified in power. The Earthquake hit so hard that Steelix was blasted out of the ground like a giant bullet, screeching with agony. A deep indent graced the field as Jasmine's Steelix crash landed back down.

Calmness saturated Jasmine's voice as she spoke again. "Iron Tail!"

I didn't have time to breathe before an Iron Tail was slung at Phantom at magnificent speed, launching her into me and crushing us both against the wall. I clambered to my feet, gasping with the force of the hit. My pokémon shuddered in pain at the direct and sudden hit, acknowledging me with a small, wind chime-like whisper.

"I'm okay," I slurred. I wasn't _entirely_ lying- the worst I had was a bit of blood sloshing in my mouth, which dribbled into the dirt at my feet as I spoke. My injury fueled Phantom's voracity for the battle, and she wasted no time with the next attack. "Fire Punch!"

With hands cloaked in raging embers, she clutched onto Steelix' tail and began to sling it round and round, whipping the metal snake around like a doll as the flames progressed up its body.

"Let her fly!"

Steelix was released from Phantom's flaming grip and thrown at top speed over Jasmine's head, straight into the wall. Debris burst from the powerfully tempered walls, crumbling with the huge amounts of dusts that rose.

The audience fell to a dead silence as the ref gulped and moved to evaluate the pokémon's condition. Part of me wanted to feel bad for the brutality I was exhibiting, but I guess as battles grew more intense, I evolved in the same way.

"Steelix is unable to battle. Lyra's Dusknoir wins this round!"

Another outburst of cheering roused the audience. Suddenly, unbelievable pride and elation rose from my stomach to water my eyes. These people loved me. It didn't matter what I done or the trouble I'd had, here I was. But something was prickling at me. I looked around at the faces, seeing blondes and brunettes. I looked at the stands where Silver had previously been at the start of the battle, where somebody else was now seated.

_It's okay._ I comforted my heartbeat, which was sinking without his presence. _He may just be late. The battle is only 15 minutes in. He'll be here._

As I refocused on the battle, something told me I was wasting my hopes.

* * *

For the remainder of the battle, a deep welt of sorrow was clinging to my mind. Every so often I would miss a beat, and a pokémon of mine would be struck. So far, I'd knocked out 5 of Jasmine's 6 pokémon, only losing 2 of mine, those two being Annie and Floater. For the first time in a while, my very first pokémon's seeming lack of the ability to evolve was alarming me. Here she was, going up amongst pokémon with equal levels as her, yet them having the advantage due to being evolved.

Annie had always been the lonely one in my team, never being all that social. The only pokémon that seemed to make her happy was… Feraligatr, who towered over her. Maybe he held the key to prompting her evolution. I sighed. It was strange, a pokémons' love.

I blinked my way out of my thoughts, fixing Jasmine's last pokémon in my sights as Savage took a blow from her Metagross. This thing had been responsible for the fainting of my last 2 pokémon. Time to step it up a notch.

"Hit the ground with an Ice Fang, Sav!" She dug her glimmering white knives into the dirt of the ground, pulsing ice into it like an injection. Automatically, the surface of the arena began to collect with ice, layering out in the smooth image of an ice rink.

"Hammer Arm!" Metagross raised a steel leg high over the ground, plunging it down with force to shatter the entire field upon impact. I raised a hand to protect my face as bits and chunk of ice flew into my face, Savage skidding back to avoid the onslaught. I growled.

_Nothing I do to alter its surroundings will bother it, and Sav isn't good at taking hits. _I thought, eyeing the Psychic tank as its metallic roar sang over the field. _But every time it uses Hammer Arm, its speed goes down. _

"Savage, Waterfall!"

Water enveloped her entire body until the layers grew thick enough to turn her body electric blue, and she launched herself at Metagross. If it was possible for a pokémon to snicker, that's exactly what Metagross did before pulling back an arm and launching it forward at Savage. Just what I'd wanted.

"Dodge it, and use Skull Bush!" I shouted. Sav skidded out of the way of the blow, and bounded into the air.

Metagross screeched in agony as my speedy Water/Dark type piledrove into it from above with her hard head, crushing it into the ground. My Sharpedo had always been an Attack tank, just like Metagross, but a rapid mover as well.

There was no way for Metagross to get its claws on Savage from where she was above him, nor could an Earthquake do anything but injure the Steel type itself. On top of that, Psychic didn't work on Dark-types. We could do however we pleased.

"Crunch!" I shouted, feeling the victory swell into me as Savage brought her fangs down on Metagross' head, piercing the steel.

Jasmine leapt up, clearly nervous to have been pushed in a corner. "Mirror Shot, quickly!"

"What?" I gasped. Glistening much like her Bastiodon had done earlier, Metagross lit with metallic energy and blasted, sending my pokémon flying off its back.

"Now Hammer Arm!"

"Hydro Pump!" Sav ushered herself off the ground and blasted a column of water at the foe, just as it leapt out of the hole it had been forced into.

The sound of high-pressure water bouncing off a tank burst into the air as Metagross flew back wards and into the beaten wall behind it. My heartbeat had bounced out of control, speeding ahead of me in case I had to make any quick decisions. Beads of sweat collected at my brow as the ref made a final call.

"Metagross is unable to battle. Lyra is the winner!"

Overwhelmed with happiness, I took a bow before the ecstatic audience and their roars of admiration, amazement, and thrill. Nobody was more thrilled than I was, though.

Jasmine made her way across the field to hand me a Mineral Badge, glistening with its newness like a freshly scrubbed nickel.

"I- I heard things about you, Lyra. I've never had a battle like that. Thank you,"

My most sincere smile broke out across my face. "Neither have I. You were amazing, too. Thanks, and I hope to see you around,"

…

After an interview about my win and battling strategies, I blinked open my eyes with different thoughts than before. The battling side of my soul and the side that longed for Silver collided with sickening violence inside me as I scanned the now empty stands. How much I'd wanted to see him watch me conquer, to be part of that adoring audience, crippled me to where I stood.

There were things trying to dapple at my attention, unsuccessfully. Sorrel tugged gently on my sleeve, and there was an unmistakable edge of concern in the Gym attendant's voice as he spoke to me, but I ignored both of them. Mourning gripped my stomach as I realized how perfect my victory would have been had he been there with me, to see the jaded, exacting look in his eyes see me and widen as though I were a wonder embodied.

As much as it burned, I forced myself to walk silently from the arena and out of the gym's doors.

* * *

_Silver, Goldenrod City's 8th Underground Cellar._

…

Feraligatr was tensed and nervous at my side as we made our way through the secret refuge of Rocket grunts, utilized only when the HQ became uninhabitable for whatever reason. Like, maybe, I don't know- a few unsolved murders?

I chuckled. Besides the rib thing, I was made of steel. I felt powerful, and it felt dangerously good.

At last, we stood before a door that hid a bustling group of grunts and one purple haired Admin. I kicked open the door, feeling the tempered steel of my knife in my fingers as they all turned around to witness Feraligatr's murderous ambush.

_This is for you, Lyra._ That was my last intelligible thought before I launched headlong into the scrambled group to help my partner.


	11. What I'd Left Behind

**Author's Note: **If I could break this story up into 3 parts, this would be the beginning of the 2nd part. That's all I had to say. Thank you all for staying with me this long. New settings approaching!

Enjoy!

* * *

_Lyra._

…

Sun blasted over Goldenrod's singing saffron streets, casting dark shadows over my pokegear's open screen as I strolled amongst flocks of pedestrians towards the Department store.

The girl in me, after my most recent defeating of a gym leader, needed to shop. Badly. While battling, it had never reoccurred to me that I was throwing orders and flaming Steelix while in improvised pajamas. Being as close to home as I was for the first time in months, I figured stopping there wouldn't be such a bad idea either.

Before long, I stood in between racks of summery rose colored dresses that I couldn't resist. All of my wins had been very generous toward my wallet, and I could easily afford the entire joint if I wanted it. Pokémon training was the kind of business that allowed that sort of profit.

I was just fingering the material on a raspberry-colored floral when somebody tapped my shoulder. Upon turning around, the small girl behind me gave an enthusiastic giggle.

"Mommy! Come here! It's Lyra!"

Here I was, bewildered as ever, as a woman in her early 30's or so replaced a sweater on a rack and rolled her eyes. "Honey, I told you, the cashier is not Lyra. _Her_ name was Betty-"

The rant of disbelief continued until the woman's daughter gave a sharp tug on her sleeve, pointing directly at me. Our eyes met, wide with surprise.

The little green-eyed brunette suddenly produced a pad of paper shaped like a pokeball and an expensive looking pen, possibly belonging to her mother, as they ogled. "It really is her!" she fawned.

These were the times that I needed to exert some suavity. I was a celebrity, after all. A lopsided smile graced my face as I bent down to scribble my name and a few encouraging words onto the paper. All the while, the girl and her mother looked ready to faint with excitement.

There really was no getting used to this, I guess. Just as I handed the pad of paper back to the girl's mother, sending them on their way, something tipped me off to the feeling of eyes on my neck.

Before I could blink, a voice both familiar and irritating burst to life in my ear. "Lyra! Long time no see, eh?"

Whitney, in her usual attire, was peering at me from over the opposite side of the clothes rack I stood before, a Miltank seated beside her. "You've gotten so famous since I last saw you, huh? On the battlefield?"

"For sure," My internal wit and talkative nature turned me into a chatterbox despite my urge to go running out of the store. The last time I'd seen her was when I tried haplessly to cheer her up when she burst into tears after I defeated her. "I see you've stopped the waterworks?"

"That, and toughened up a bit too. Right, Mil-ey?" She patted the head of her rotund powerhouse of a Miltank and grinned ambitiously. "What do you say about a rematch?"

I gave a frown of honest disappointment as I answered. "You know I would, but I just finished a 6-on-6 against Jasmine and the team is exhausted,"

Whitney's grin turned into an understanding smile. "Right- I saw your battle on TV. She's tough, isn't she? Well, I understand. I remember the last time I battled her, she absolute stomped me. Of course I wasn't at the top of my game like I am now, but still. Normal and Rock moves were doing nothing to that Bastiodon of hers. It was like punching a steel-studded rock wall! I had to rely on…"

At this point my ears and eyes had wandered, looking for an easy change in subject. A sale sign caught my attention, and I quickly put a plan into action. "Hey, look! A two for one sale on these dresses! Grab your size and we can pay together,"

She looked slightly bewildered but complied, being the agreeable girl that she was. Within the next 10 minutes, I found myself holding a massive shopping bag and licking an ice cream cone on a city bench. I'd eagerly changed into a new purchase- the same flowing magenta dress I'd been eyeballing in the Dept. store. Silver's belt still clung to my waist as a sneaky addition that I doubted he'd notice, but chose to do anyway. I'd put away my trademark over-the-knee socks. On top of that, somewhere between leaving Rocket HQ and arriving at Silver's, my hat had been lost. A new, wide brimmed ivory one shielded my eyes from late afternoon sun as I watched the people walk past.

The more pedestrians that scuttled back and forth before me, the lonelier I felt. More than once, a couple would stroll past, some pushing strollers and others locking hands. No matter how rudely anyone glared, these people had eyes for each other only. It was as if there only obligations were to be together, before others' judgment, despite and because.

A new wave of indescribable emotions swept through me, and I bounded to my feet and strode down the street to outrun the tightness in my chest. Light wind smacked my face as I approached a corner while holding my hat on my head. I angled my body to launch into a full run just as I met at parallel with the corner. Just as I edged forward, my head collided straight into another person's body, bouncing me back a few inches before I could look up.

Silver's hands made a reflexive grab for my shoulders as I stared dumbly back into his eyes, caught up in sheer disbelief.

"I didn't think I'd run into you here," he mumbled, making a lengthy visual evaluation of my new outfit. "Erm, how did that battle go?"

I wanted with an itching urgency to nail him for not showing up to the match, but whining never got anyone anywhere. I'd bring it up later, when there weren't so many people within earshot. And so I put forth my best lopsided grin and said, weaker than I'd hoped, "I won a 2-to-6,"

"Let me guess… the shiny Fearow, and…" he wavered a bit before finishing; "-your Nidoran?"

Suddenly horrified, I sank my head to hide the embarrassing dampness in my eyes. I felt Silver reach out awkwardly to pat my shoulder as wandering eyes began to prod from on the sidewalk.

"Um… it's, er, okay," he mumbled, starting to pull me into the darkness of an alley. As soon as I felt a cool veil of shadow sink over my skin, Silver bent down to my height.

"Lyra. Some pokémon can't evolve. I shouldn't have to tell you that,"

A deep, shaky breath drew into my lungs as gravity pulled me to look up into his eyes. "I know, but I'm 7 badges in now, Silver. When I send her out against Clair, and god forbid she _laughs_ at her, what do I say?"

Silver smirked. "You won't have to say anything. I'll pound her head in for you,"

"Promise?" I laughed, wrapping my arms over his torso.

"With a baseball bat," his earnest delivery of the line brought the smile out of me, when I needed it most.

Suddenly, something struck me, and no dosage of the violent charm he emitted could stop me from asking. "And where were you? At the battle…?"

Rigidness spiked his form in my arms instantly, drawing a startled breath from my lips as my eyes shot up to evaluate. Something told me I wasn't supposed to sense the reflex.

"I'll make it up to you," he whispered hastily.

I realized something just then. I really, truly loved him, and yet he had never been within so much of a foot of my family, my friends. As passionately as I loved the idea of traveling and moving around, I ached for some stability, if only with us. Call it silly, but I knew exactly how he could make it up to me;

"Silver," I backed away from him a few inches, looking deep into the gray eyes that I loved. "I want you to visit my hometown,"

All I needed was his defiant groan to allow the smallest of a grin from myself.

"I want you to meet my mom,"

* * *

"Lyra, be realistic. I look like a thug right now,"

This was the 8th argument he'd tried to throw at me since I'd hauled him out of the city limits and into Route 34. My hand clenched reassuringly onto his. "You look fine,"

I heard him mutter something along the lines of "bullshit" and stop dead in the middle of the dirt road, jerking me back an inch or two with the abruptness.

Patience was a lucky gift of mine- as was persuasion- so I turned around and pressed my body into his darkly clothed and undeniably thuggish form. These days he'd gotten firmer, stronger. He hadn't done so much as wince for days now- all the more reason to try to rouse reaction in him. I leaned back against a lone oak tree that stood alongside the road, sporting a flirtatious smirk.

"You're going to make me convince you? Out here in the middle of the road?" I couldn't believe what I was saying, while Silver took a daring step toward me, pressing a palm into the tree over my head. What a step this had been from when we were escaping the grasp of elders in the Dragon's Den. Now my innuendos actually _got_ me somewhere.

His looming shadow eclipsed the sun from my eyes, appearing as a sunny glow behind his masses of red hair and glossing it to a near scarlet shade of maroon. Just as I dared myself to reach out and gently rake my fingers through the sun-kissed strands, something stirred in my peripheral vision.

Silver tensed automatically, backing away from me and examining the route. As I'd begun to do, I became hyper aware of the pokeballs at my side, beads of sweat collecting at my brow; nobody would ever sneak up on me again.

Suddenly, a familiar figure moved from around the side of a house- the Daycare Center- carrying a newborn Elekid in his arms. Tingles of pure happiness burst under my skin as Ethan, my childhood friend, looked up from the pokémon and met my gaze.

"Lyra?" Disbelief dilated his already huge dark brown eyes to dinner plate size. Within moments he had charged up to me, ignoring Silver, and yanking me into a bear hug. "Hey! How's the adventure going?"

"7 in," I said proudly, remembering to give Silver's hand a light squeeze so he knew I hadn't forgotten him.

He backed away from me with newfound surprise. "Only one more left, huh?"

We both said her name in unison: "Clair,"

"I hear she's tough," I mused.

"Hah," he snorted out a laugh. "I hear she's a _bitch_,"

I tried unsuccessfully to stifle my laughter and wagged a disapproving finger at him. "Doesn't being bitchy come with the whole package? Of being strong, I mean?

He bowed playfully, defeated yet not caring all that much as usual. "Whatever you say, ma'am,"

Meanwhile, deep curiosity and judgment that only I could sense lingered in Silver's eyes as he made his own evaluation of the situation, anger slowly pursing his lips into a cold line. Knowing his violent nature and stricken with sudden worry, I scrambled for his side.

"Ethan, this is Silver. He's my…" A flush of debate turned my face red as I decided the best way to answer would be honesty, even if it was the biggest understatement to ever leave my lips. "My boyfriend,"

My friend gave me an exaggerated nod, raising his eyebrows to his hairline. Another betraying blush lit my cheeks, but trust me, it could have been worse. This was _Ethan, _king of perversion, foul language, and sex cracks.

"So Silver, how old are you?"

The beginning of "Mind your business" formed at Silver's lips before a quick stomp on the foot ended it. Instead, he stuttered out, "Sixteen,"

I noticed something twitch in Ethan's eyes as he looked Silver over, radiating an emotion only identifiable as suspicion. "Say, you look familiar…?"

Uh oh. Anywhere Ethan could have seen Silver, it couldn't have been under legal conditions on Silver's part, if you know what I mean. I leapt to change the subject, even though the topic that popped out of my mouth burned the edges of my lips to speak of.

"Ethan, how are your grandparents doing?"

Easily distracted as usual, he bounced on the subject immediately. "They're great, actually. Pa just took some of the profits from the last few months' boom and bought himself one of those 60's rides he likes. How about you?"

I tapped the brim of my hat uncomfortably. "Well, actually, I've been having a problem I think you could help me with,"

"Hm?" he egged me on as I paused.

"Annie's been… having trouble evolving. You know the disorder, how common it is. But it's been hurting her battling, and now that Sav and Sorrel have evolved, she's been really out of it…"

He nodded in understanding. "Yeah, sure. Here, give me her ball. I'll drop her off right now,"

He'd already strode halfway toward the open door of his grandparent's Daycare center with Annie's ball in his hand when he suddenly looked over his shoulder at Silver, who kept up a steady gate beside me.

"Hey, you! Er, Silver! Got any pokémon you want to drop off while I'm at it?"

Silver gave an awkward grimace, pondering, before a scratched pokeball appeared in his outstretched hand. Ethan peered into the slightly translucent surface of the ball and blinked in surprise.

"Nice! You've got a Feraligatr?" he shook his head in jealousy as we all trudged into the wooden building. "I got stuck with a Meganium,"

I'd heard this lament from him over and over, even though he was only a few badges behind me, last time I checked. "Ethan, you know how good you are with Grass-types. It was pure luck you got Chikorita,"

"Yeah, yeah- Pa! How was the drive?" Ethan half-addressed his grandfather, who sat in the middle of the room reading a novel.

The poor old man found himself talking into the back of Ethan's head as he trudged out into the orchard. I gave him a quick hello before hurrying after Ethan.

Outside, clusters of furry little baby pokémon and giant golem-like beasts were littered around on the grass, scurrying toward Ethan and his buckets of feed.

"Okay guys, chill out, don't eat me," he laughed and patted the head of a Pichu that tugged at his leg. "So are you going to visit your mom back in New Bark? I'm sure she'd love to meet Silver," I chuckled as he gave me a wink that fortunately escaped Silver's notice.

"Of course. Actually, I think I should be headed there now. It's getting dark," I waved vigorously, backing towards the door with Silver's hand clutched in mine. "Nice seeing you, Ethan! I'll call tomorrow!"

Ethan gave a scrambled effort to wave as he fought off the nibbling teeth of a Poochyena. "Got it, Lee- hey! That's mine!"

Silver and I departed from the Daycare as an overeager Furret leapt onto Ethan's head.

That was the reaction of my best friend. And now… for my mom.

* * *

"So where are you from, Silver?" Mom tapped uncomfortably on the kitchen table, toggling a strand of her thick brunette locks with the other hand.

Silver's eyes winced with nervousness as he blurted out a lie. "Sinnoh,"

"It's chilly there. You don't look like the complaining type, though," She gave him an approving half smile as she scanned his hard mask of a face, the unreadable gray scroll of his eyes. Behind them though, his mind was whirring with unease. It was like a channel only I accessed.

I wondered whether it would be a good idea to try to end the conversation here, before she started asking about family. "So Mom, are you going to that, um-" I viciously explored the contours of my memory to remember what event was going on in Ecruteak City tonight. "The jazz performance in Ecruteak Theater? At 8:00?"

Her eyes instantly lit with dreamlike anticipation. Nobody loved music like my mother did. "Of course- a whole 4 hours of pure audio heaven. You want to come?"

"Um, not tonight. I'm exhausted, you know? Battle with Jasmine?"

She nodded and took a look at the stove's clock behind her. "Right- and you know I'm proud of you, honey, but it's almost time for me to go,"

Sure enough, time had brought us from late afternoon into late evening, and the clock read 7:12 PM. As we processed immediately that in minutes we would be alone, a familiar, uncontrollable purge of lust swept from me into Silver, lighting shivers over my skin and bringing a bead of sweat to my forehead.

Luckily, Mom had her back turned in search of her purse and didn't notice my fingers knot urgently into the hem of his jacket. As shocking as these sudden cravings had been back at his house, having my mother present- a completely moral figure in my life- brought the onset of danger to the situation. It was far too enticing to bear.

As she hurried around the side of the table toward the front door, I practically jumped away from Silver and moved to open the door for her. "I hope you have fun, Mom. We were just heading out to visit Ethan's parents. See you later,"

I shut the door behind mom and my cheery, boldfaced lie and locked it. As soon as she was gone, I leaned against the door with an outstretched arm and made a sudden and unplanned gasp for air, finding my brain swimming in oxygen. How long had I been holding my breath?

Before my heartbeat had regulated itself, I found myself frozen by the sound of his silent approach behind me. Clutching me to him, he drew a hand from my waist and down, slipping teasingly down my inner thigh.

Again came the stuttering his name from my mouth, forgetting to breathe. I uttered a broken gasp, blankly aware of my hat tumbling lightly to the floor, as he lifted up a thick curtain of my hair and breathed an electrified gust of heat onto the skin of my neck.

A tremor racked my frame as his lips explored the length of my neck, leaving me so weak in the knees that I could feel my legs buckling beneath me. Reflexes shot my hand out for the doorknob with a grip so shaky and hot that it slid right back off. I cursed my vulnerable tendencies between clenched teeth.

My rapid slip of composure earned me a muffled chuckle from Silver- who still had his mouth hovering above my skin- that sent a fresh flurry of shivers down my spine. At last, I crumpled to my knees on the tile floor that I'd spent years of my life walking through innocent childhood on. Where his body had seared mine with tension felt suddenly bare, my face flushed red and chest heaving as though I'd just run a mile.

Still gasping for air, I tilted my head up to stare into Silver's smug expression above me.

"I know, I know. I'm not usually that generous," he crouched down before me, perfectly calm, as I spun around, floor-ridden and short of breath. "I was hoping to make it to your room first, when you _fainted_ on me,"

"I did not faint!" I retorted abashedly, realizing that I might as well have. "You're just- ruthless,"

He shrugged, standing up again. With a deep inhalation, I unfolded to my full height as well. I saw his eyes taking a long look at my waist, where I'd added his own black belt as an accessory. His finger lifted an inch as if to say something, but he dropped it and sufficed to laugh instead.

I decided, in return for his generous-yet-also-insanely-greedy seduction effort, to skip up the staircase toward the bathroom. "Yes, sir, I stole your belt. And since you're so insatiable, Silver, I've decided to reenact a little gag of ours,"

Silver groaned with realization as I swept into the bathroom, stuck out my tongue mischievously, and closed the door.


	12. Their Lust

**Author's Note: **You may shoot me now. *cowers in corner*

I am so sorry about the vacation folks. Had a nasty case of writer's block/figuring out how to seam together plot holes/other fics/ etc. I had to rewrite this at least 7 times, making various amounts of progress with each effort.

Oh! And -R-RavensFire-e- ; Don't think I was ignoring your review on chapter 9! Silver will be answering a few of Lyra's questions regarding his (numerous) sexual escapades in this chapter.

So, as you probably guessed, **it's another sexy chapter****, ****with all that that implies****! **(this is quite a bit naughtier than chapter 8 was- I'm pushing the T rating to the limit!). It might take me a while to get my flow back as well. Also- guess what? Lyra caved and let Silver in the bathroom, XD. That's why the chapter begins the way it does.

*I just created a youtube account- link's on my profile. Please check it out and shoot me a friend request!

* * *

_Lyra._

…

Silver froze for a long moment, beginning to answer my question, only to stop with a long sigh.

Guilt tugged at my heartstrings. "Sorry. It's touchy…" he tightened his frown, his gaze locking on my face. I sincerely repeated myself. "I'm sorry, Silver,"

He shrugged. "I guess it's not fair that I never mentioned it. I forget details,"

"And I forget to ask for them," I added. "But could you maybe start with how long you've been a traveler?"

...

...

...

"It was maybe… 5 years ago," He mumbled, his eyebrows drawn as he rummaged through memories long buried.

The way his fingers tapped restlessly on the cabinet knob betrayed his hard expression; I could tell that years of pain sealed the story about to be explained. He handled himself so calmly, as if trying to communicate that I should react the same way, but still…

The whole idea of it shook me. 10 was that age where you could understand your misfortunes enough to regret the actions that led to them, yet too young to do a thing about it.

"Maybe I'm a year off. But 5 years feels about right," He shifted to the side as I dug through the cabinet beside him, pulling out various bottles.

"Keep going," I pressed, feeling his eyes as he paused to scrutinize my naked body.

He averted his glance to the rug and continued; "I'll summarize it this way. My dad had always had a talent for evading things. He kept me away from the school system, pulled strings to keep doctors and social workers away. There were times when he would leave me in the house by myself for days, with no explanation when he got back. Most of the time I couldn't leave the backyard, and if I tried, his Persian would get me and drag me back," After a moment's thought, he added, dark humor glittering in his eyes, "I hated that damned cat…"

I snorted out a laugh, but felt the cords that connected us tighten around my heart. No matter the small quips of humor, I knew the ending of this story. Curiosity saturated my voice as I stepped into the tub.

"You were jealous of it?"

I saw him shrug on the other side of the shower curtain. "You could put it that way. I remember this specifically about that day- I was outside, going to find his fucking cat like I always had to do, when I turned around. Dear old Dad was standing right there, with a bag in his hand,"

My breath caught, a burning wrapping my eyes. I quickly turned the knob and felt the steaming water slap off my head, and found myself yearning to look into his eyes again. My hand pushed the curtain back and away, and what I saw shocked me into silence. His eyelids were squeezed shut over years of pain, his steel façade breaking down right in front of me. There was a lethargic tilt to his posture and a bleakness in his eyes that aged him by years. I wished I could bear it all for him.

"He told me that it had been long enough," His eyes opened again, their cold silver irises waterless, automatically locking in on mine. "I told him I didn't understand, and so he explained to me that my presence in his life was a hindrance to his goal. Everything he did was so he could become more powerful. I was just a part of that conquest," he finished with a cold apathy that frightened me.

"Don't say that," I suddenly outstretched a slick wet arm and wrapped my hand around his. At first, his body stiffened, before he sighed and raised my upturned palm to his lips.

Heat burned my cheeks as the anger cooled from his eyes. My face burned a darker red as he noticed my embarrassment and kissed my wrist again. I instantly tried to retrieve my arm from his grip, but he flashed me a playful smirk, going on to trail up my arm with his lips, so slowly it was agonizing.

He was teasing my shoulder with his teeth as I muttered, "Damn you… Ahh… You bounce back fast, don't you?"

His response was a deep chuckle into the skin of my neck, lighting my body with shivers. I was tensing in defiance of the sensations, and inside, fumed. He never allowed himself to be overpowered, even for just a second. I wondered how he learned how to be so impossibly overwhelming. How many partners had he had before me?

Thinking about it gave me a nagging urge to change the topic. "Um... you're 15, right? So you've been travelling since you were 10?"

"11," A small smile played at his lips as he glanced up at me. "I turned 16 last winter,"

"Oh,"

Last winter. 5 months ago. My mind whirred with the implications of that one additional year. One year that I hadn't had, to train, learn, exist. That, and if I, a previously chaste person, had lost my virginity at 15, then what about… him?

In my peripherals, I could see his eyes had taken on a scrutinizing quality. My line of vision had lost its focus, eyelids sagging in the slightest as I contemplated the white tiles in front of me. It felt as though the showerhead barely concealed my thundering heartbeat. I sucked in a shaking breath.

Seeing my discomfort, he leaned toward me again, his fingertips gently prying the curtain from my clutch. I only clenched it tighter, shaking my head. I knew I was overreacting, but how else could I go about this without sounding jealous?

"Uh…" He cocked his head. "Do you want me to leave?"

I shook my head no again, realizing I was getting myself nowhere. So I looked him dead in the eye, trying to seep through his bewilderment and confront my suspicions at the same time. "Um… Silver…"

There must have been a double entendre to the way I mumbled his name, because he misinterpreted beautifully. I felt his own body shiver against mine as I whispered his name again, my second mistake. His head bent down to eclipse my vision with red masses of hair, lips moving softly down the bridge of my nose and lower into a paralyzing kiss. My downfall was next.

The steam grew even more suffocating as he ran a hand up my soap slicked back, suddenly unable to take his time as he had done before, burying his fingers in my wet hair. A chill swam through my bones despite the hot water pelting onto my head. We'd become two separate machines again, and I couldn't predict a thing in his mind, only the filthy implications in his eyes.

After a few seconds, I tilted my head away, unable to rein in a suggestive smile. At last, my boldness had returned. Hardly having to think about it, I grabbed a fistful of his black t-shirt and cocked my head to the side.

"Care to join me?"

* * *

_10 minutes later._

_..._

As soon as I'd plodded down the hall and was standing before the mirror in my room, I decided that I'd never had a more amazing 10 minutes in my life. My skin still tingled where his mouth had lingered, along with a pressing inability to think of anything but the inevitable. I'd managed to convince him to spend a few minutes in the shower by himself. It was boggling to think about the offhand manner I used to regard romance.

Before him I had been nearly completely chaste. I'd had a few weeklong crushes like every girl did in her life on neighborhood boys, all of which were now traveling different regions of the world as trainers. I couldn't really say I particularly missed any of them. My true passion had always been battling.

… And then there was Silver. I wondered about him sometimes, with his life of stealing and petty crime, and possibly romantic endeavors. There were so many girls out there who would see the red hair, the unapproachable aura, the complex mask of violence and sometimes flirtatiousness. It was easy to imagine a female trainer making a pass at him after a battle, or his boredom getting the better of him one day or another. I visualized the way his gaze intensified when he was turned on, and imagined the same passion locked on to somebody else. The prospect was unthinkable.

Sighing, I let the towel drop from around my body and ran a comb through my hair, grateful that my skin was already drying under the air conditioners chill.

After a few moments of debate, I put on a black bra and panties, spritzing my favorite perfume onto various spots on my skin. My hair was mostly dry now, the caramel brown eyes of the girl in the mirror round and anxious as the showerhead turned off in the bathroom down the hall.

Ravenous again, I opened my bedroom door and started down the hall, passing the bathroom as quietly as I could.

I kept walking until I entered Mom's bedroom, seating myself on the bed amongst a barrage of pillows. The TV was left on to the News channel. A restless sleeper, she had a king sized bed dressed in the softest black and white comforter imaginable. I remembered the nights we would sit on it watching the food channel, trying to recreate the recipes with messy, inedible end results. Hm… such childish innocence.

I scolded myself for smirking mischievously at my comment; I was becoming so risqué-minded.

At last, the drawl of the television was interrupted by the creaking open of the door, and a cautious looking Silver stepped into the room. He'd pulled his jacket on over his bare chest, his pants and belt in place as they always were.

His gaze met mine for a moment before he evaluated my choice of apparel (or lack thereof), but he stayed right where he was. Retrospectively speaking, it was pretty intriguing that he was waiting for an invitation this time. I laughed and beckoned him over.

"Your Mom's bed, huh? How much trouble do you think we'd be in?" His smile was full of inquisition as he sat down on the bed in front of me.

"That depends," I grinned, burying my fingers in his hair. "We have to get caught first,"

This time, thanks to the way I sat on my knees and towered over him, I used my grip on his hair to tilt his head back and press my lips to his. Instantly, it felt as though my passion was bursting at the seams, pressing me to lose control.

Silver placed his hands on my hips and clutched me closer to him, dragging a finger along the edge of my underwear. I could hear him chuckle at the way my breath hitched, and my hands instinctively moving to slide his jacket off his shoulders and discard it on the floor.

As soon as I'd done it, he suddenly tumbled backwards, pulling me with him so that I rested on top of him.

It was new to me, baring my whole body to him at once the way I was now. I tried to repress the self consciousness, with little success. He must've noticed my insecurity, because he rolled me over onto my back and went straight for my weakness, nibbling at the curve of my neck. His fingers dug deeper into the cotton of my underwear, catching me off guard. I gritted my teeth over a hiss of pleasure, my mind whiting. I decided to bring it up before I got too carried away.

My head was spinning and my voice wavered accordingly, but I was doing better than the first time. "Um, Silver?"

"Hm?" His voice was rough, and the circuference of his irises were burning like molten iron when he glanced up at me.

Even over the mumble of the TV, it felt as though there was nothing that could mask my words. "When you were travelling... did you ever..."

A look of confusion crossed his features as my sentence lingered. And then I remembered; subtleties were only confusing to him, so I bit my lip and blurted; "I know I'm not your 'first'. How many girls have you slept with before me?"

I know, I'm a professional mood-wrecker. But I just couldn't help myself. The question was hovering around in the air as he struggled to answer.

"It's nothing you should worry about-"

Oh boy. "It was a lot, wasn't it?"

Silence.

A deep sigh tumbled from his mouth. "Maybe a dozen or so that I spent one night with and never saw again. I guess I hoped that I was practicing for something better," He smiled and placed a chaste kiss on my lips, before moving to fondle with my bra strap.

Damn. I was getting distracted again. "So you never let any of them in your house?"

He shook his head. "Nobody's ever been in there but the fisherman who owned it, me, and you,"

"Hmph," I was still frowning, but the worst of my unease was gone. The desire was setting back in, and fast. At some point during that little exchange, he'd unhooked my bra, now removing it from my body completely. I rolled my eyes. "You probably do this to every girl, don't you?"

"No," he said, matter-of-factly, "I don't usually try this hard,"

"Really?" Throwing my coyness aside, I latched a hand onto his belt buckle, my gaze locked on his eyes. "Prove it,"

* * *

Ack... I know my flow was off this chapter but it was either now or next month... Please be patient and have mercy on me! Remember to review, and tell me if you believe the rating is still appropriate!


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